been invented by Sir David Brewster. Chiromancy is the pretended science of foretelling the destiny by the lines of the palın of the hand. Chrysolite, or gold-stone, is a name given to the topaz, from its golden colour. Observe the law of the ten commandments called the Decalogue. A rhododendron is a rose-tree, in opposition to the rose-bush, commonly, but erroneously, called the rose-tree. A hippodrome is the Greek for our term race-course; what we call a race-course the Greeks called a horse-course or a horse-running. EXERCISES IN COMPOSITION. Words with their Prepositions to be formed into sentences. Amenable to, Analogous to, Analogy to, between, Animadvert on, Antecedent to, Antipathy to, against, Anxious about, Apologise for, Appeal to, Appertain to, Applicable to, Apply to, Apprehension of, Approve of, amener, to bring analog, similar angor, choking nexa, a link { apo, from logo, discourse per, through tene, to hold plic, to fold, grasp prehend, to take hold Appropriate to, Argue with, against, Report the following anecdote :- argue, proof INTELLIGENCE OF AN APE. "A friend of mine," says Dr. Bailly, "a man of understanding and veracity, related to me these two facts, of which he was an eyewitness. He had an intelligent ape, with which he amused himself by giving it walnuts, of which the animal was extremely fond. One day he placed them at such a distance from the ape that the animal, restrained by his chain, could not reach them. After many useless efforts to indulge himself in his favourite delicacy, the ape happened to see a servant pass by with a napkin under his arm; he immediately seized hold of it, whisked it out beyond his arm to bring the nuts within his reach, and so he obtained possession of them. His mode of breaking the walnut was a fresh proof of the animal's inventive powers; he placed the walnut upon the ground, let a great stone fall upon it, and so got at its contents. One day the ground on which he had placed the walnut was so much softer than usual, that, instead of breaking the walnut, the ape only drove it into the earth. What does the animal do? He takes up a tile, places the walnut upon it, and then lets the stone fall while the walnut is in this position."-Sydney Smith. The learning of a new language is like the acquisition of a new sense. This is true, if only because a new language affords a new set of means for the expression of our ideas. The capacity of the human mind is greater than is the power of expression possessed by any vocabulary. That greater capacity finds a new channel, and a new outlet, in a new language. Besides, language is a medium for conveying ideas to a recipient, as well as an instrument for the expression of ideas already entertained. With words, then, you gain ideas. The increase of a man's vocabulary is the augmentation of his mental treasures. New knowledge must run into the old moulds. If it is true that no idea, no word; equally true is it that no word, no idea. You may, indeed, make a word contain more than it does contain. You may transmute brass into silver, and silver into gold; but out of nothing, comes nothing. There are, then, two ways by which I may impart knowledge; I may give a new idea by giving a new word, and I may increase the value of the word you have. Equally may I aid the development of your mind, and augment at once its knowledge and its power, by supplying you with a fresh term, or a fresh system of terms, as a means for the expression of your thoughts and feelings. These remarks find verification in the study even of the remnants of Greek which form part of our English speech. If ours is a rich language, if ours is an expressive language, we owe a large debt of gratitude to the Greek. By the aid which it affords, we express thoughts which we could not otherwise have expressed; and we acquire ideas, and modifications of ideas, the sources of which are found only in its literature. In exemplication, it suffices to refer to the single domain of theology. The creed of Christendom wears the shape and the hue which it received from the Greek language, in which the Gospel was promulgated to the world, and by which it was planted in the mind of all the most civilised nations. * In Greek, when two g's come together, the first sounds like . The aid which the Greek language affords to the student in making exact verbal distinctions is illustrated in orthoepy, which is, by its derivation, seen to designate right speaking, as orthography is right writing; the first, therefore, refers to pronunciation, the second to spelling. "The epic poem is a discourse invented by art to form the manners by such instructions as are disguised under the allegories of some one important action, which is related in verse after a probable, diverting, and surprising manner."-Pope. The three great epics are Homer's "Iliad," Virgil's "Aeneid," and Milton's "Paradise Lost." Such is the perfection of these poems that they form a class by themselves. "Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn." The formation of our hermit, from the Greek eremites, illustrates the change which words undergo in passing from one language to another. Metallurgy, an incomprehensible term to the ordinary English student, discloses its meaning by its own act to those who know the import of its component parts. Metallurgy is, in general, the art of working metals, that is, the extraction of metal from the ore. Ethics is the science of morals, that is, of right feeling and right doing. The word ethics resembles the word morals in origin. They both signify customs, and they intimate that with the ancient Greeks and Romans, what is customary was what is right. At the bottom of such a notion there must have been a low standard of morality. Thus does a knowledge of language open to our eyes the character of nations. The termination of ethics, like physics, mathematics, &c., denotes a science. Ethics is the science of morals. Evangelist is, according to the derivation, the bearer of good news. The Greek word for gospel, namely, euangelion, means good news. (Luke ii. 10.) "The gastrick juice, or the liquor which digests the food in the stomach of animals, is of all menstrua the most active, the most universal." Paley," Natural Theology." Oxygen is "A principle existing in the air, of which it forms the respirable part, and which is also necessary to combustion. Oxygen, by combining with bodies, makes them acid, whence its name, signifying generator of acids." -Todd's Johnson. Hydrogen is water-producer. Hydor (hydro) is found also in hydrocephalous (kephalé, Gr. the head), having water in the head (the brain); and in hydrophobia (phobia, Gr. fear), water-madness. Hydropsy, water-sickness, is shortened into our dropsy. "Soft, swollen, and pale, here lay the hydropsy, Hydrography is properly the opposite of geography; for, as the latter, considered in its component parts, is a description of the land, so the former is a description of the water. By usage these significations are modified, so that geography, signifying a description of the surface of the earth, comprises hydrography, which describes, by maps, charts, &c., the surface of the water, and especially the sea coast, with its rocks, islands, shoals, and shallows. Christopher Columbus, the first great discoverer of America, was a man that earned his living by making and selling hydrographical maps.” --Chambers. By derivation, grammar is the science of letters. This is not an incorrect definition, for the science of letters, considered in all its relations, is the science of language, of which letters are the elementary portions. "Letters" is often used, however, for systematic knowledge, or the results of a high and varied education. So we speak of a man of letters." In this sense the term is used in the question, "How knoweth this mau letters, having never learned?" (John vii. 15.) The hostile questioners took Jesus to be ignorant (Acts iv. 13)—that is, as in the original, idiotes, idiot, untaught such as Peter and John were accounted. "I made it both in forme and matter to emulate the kind of poeme which was called epithalamium, and by the ancients used to be sung when the bride was led into her chamber."- Ben Jonson," Masques.' A hecatomb is the slaughter of a hundred oxen in sacrifice. It is sometimes used metaphorically; e. g., "And here, sir, she offers by me to the altar of your glory, whole hecatombs of most happy desires, praying all things may prove prosperous unto you."-Drummond. Isothermal lines, are lines of equal heat in different parts of the globe. Iso is also found in isosceles (skelos, a leg), applied to a triangle which has its two sides of the same length. Aphelion is that point of the orbit of a planet in which it is remotest from the sun; perihelion is that point in which it is nearest to the sun. "There are certain flies that are called ephemera, that live but a day."-Bacon. An ephemeris is properly a journal (jour, Fr. day), an account of daily transactions. Ephemérides (the plural of ephemeris) denotes a set of astronomical tables, showing the present state of the heavens for every day at noon. Comparing the homologous, or correspondent members on both sides, we find that as the first member of the expression," &c.-Bishop Berkeley, Analyst." Apocalypse, by its very derivation, signifies uncovering; in Latin, it is unveiling, that is, revelation. In apocrypha, we have another theological term, which is in |