tion. Parish, from paroikia, a division, a district formed of persons living together, takes its English form from the French paroisse. Blackstone defines a parish as "a circuit of ground committed to the charge of one person, or vicar, or other minister having care of souls therein."

Parallel speaks of things that are, or run, by the side one of another. Two lines are called parallel when they are drawn equally distant from each other in all their extent.

"Yet shall this graceful line forget to please,

If border'd close by sidelong parallels,
Nor duly mixt with those opposing curves
That give the charm of contrast."

Mason.

In the relation of such lines, the idea of equality is obviously involved; whence, to parallel is to equal.

"Tell me, gentle boy,

Is she not parallelless? Is not her breath

Sweet as Arabian winds when fruits are ripe ?"

Beaumont and Fletcher.

But parallel lines are opposite to each other; hence para, from signifying side by side, came to signify opposite, contrary to. Thus a paradox is something opposed to common opinion; and a paralogism is an unsound argument.

"In their love of God men never can be too affectionate; it is as true, though it may seem a paradox, that in their hatred of sin, men may sometimes be too passionate."-Sprat.

"If a syllogism agree with the rules given for the construction of it, it is called a true argument; if it disagree with these rules, it is a paralogism or false argument."-Watts.

The idea of equality may lead to the idea of general excellence or even of superiority; accordingly, the word paragon, which we derive through the Italian, signifies something supremely excellent, a model.

"An angel! or if not,
An earthly paragon."

Shakspear.

Division, too, is implied in equality, and so paragraph in a book signifies a division. A paragraph is a portion of writing consisting of one or more, generally several, sentences.

"I call that by bookes and chapters which the Greeke book divideth by chapters and paragraphes."-Ascham.

These illustrations of the applications of the Greek preposition para may serve to assist the student in forming a correct acquaintance with the nature and power of language. Let him endeavour

for himself to ascertain the acceptation of other forms of para, as paradigm, paraphrase, &c., and let him not confound with such forms the words paradise and parade. Of these, the former is of Persian origin, and signifies an inclosure, a park, a garden; and the latter is of Latin origin (from paratum, signifying prepared), and comes to us through the French, denoting preparedness; hence, proof of preparedness; and hence again, show and display, such as soldiers on parade present.

EXERCISES IN COMPOSITION.

Words with their Prepositions to be formed into sentences.

The word metropolis, literally mother-city, shows how much terms, while they retain a trace of their primitive meaning, in process of time, deviate greatly therefrom. Metropolis originally had reference to the Greek system of colonisation, and was equivalent to our term mother-country; that is, the country to which each colony belonged. Properly, then, metropolis is the mother-country (in German, father-land), and the counterpart was colony. Here, metropolis retains its etymological signification, for Athens (for instance) was the mother of the colonies she planted. But now the metropolis of England, namely, London, stands in no strictly maternal relation to the provinces or even to the colonies of the empire. London is not the mother-city of the population of Lancashire, or of Calcutta, and its claim to bear the name metropolis arises almost exclusively from the fact that it is the centre of the empire, and the seat of its central government. So marked an instance of the departure of a word from its primitive meaning may teach you how cautious you should be in the etymological study of words, and how necessary it is in such studies to call in the aid of history and general knowledge.

Our word pyre is from the Greek pyr.

"When his brave son, upon the fun'ral pyre

He saw extended, and his beard on fire."

Dryden.

From pyr and latreia (Gr. worship) is formed pyrolatry, or fireworship, and from the same, with manteia (Gr. divination), is formed pyromancy, or divination by fire.

"Divination was invented by the Persians, and is seldom or never taken in good sense; there are four kinds of divination, hydromancy, pyromancy, aeromancy, geomancy."-Ayliffe.

These four kinds you ought now to be able to make out for yourself, if I tell you in addition that aer is the Greek for air, the two terms being different forms of the same word.

From pyr we have also pyrotechnics, the art of making fireworks. Pyramid is derived from the same, as appears from the following instructive quotation :

“The seven pyramids that are become wonders of the world; which in how long a time and with what difficulty they were brought up so high, Herodotus sheweth; towers they be, erected to such an height as exceedeth the handy work of man; of a huge breadthe in the bottome, and rising to a most sharp-pointed top; which figure in geometry is tearmed pyramis, for that [like] to the form of fire, it cometh to be small in the head, in fashion of a cone or pine-apple.”-Holland.

Sarcophagus, or flesh-devourer, the Greek name for coffin, had its origin in the fact that a stone (alumen schisti) was employed for the purpose, which had the quality of accelerating decomposition. According to Pliny, bodies put into such coffins were, except the teeth, totally destroyed within forty days. Perhaps from religious considerations the Greeks took means to hasten the breaking up of the frame, as is instanced in their practice of burning the dead.

Strophe, which properly signifies a turning, was the portion of a song which was sung in the Greek theatre while the chorus moved from one side of the stage to the other; when they began to move in the opposite direction, they sang the antistrophé, or opposite strophé.

To some it may not appear that enthusiast comes from theos; in the Greek original, however, the derivation is clear. Enthusiasm, according to its derivation, denotes the presence of God in the soul, and an enthusiast was one who had God in his soul. Hence, anciently, enthusiasm was the same as inspiration. By degrees the word fell into bad odour, as may be seen in these words :

"I mean enthusiasm, which, laying by reason, would set up revelation without it. Whereby in effect it takes away both reason and revelation, and substitutes in the room of it the ungrounded fancies of a man's own brain, and assumes them for a foundation both of opinion and conduct." -Locke.

The word is, however, also taken in a good sense, and then has for its inferior partner fanaticism :

"He comes! he comes! the saviour of the land!
His drawn sword flames in his uplifted hand,
Enthusiast in his country's cause."

Logan.

Zoology is the science of life, that is, of animal life, as may appear in the quotation

:

"Zoology is the noblest part of natural history, as it comprehends all sensitive beings, from reasonable man, through every species of animal life, till it descends to that point where sense is wholly extinct, and vegetation commences."-Pennant, " British Zoology."

Azote, literally life-less, is also the name of the gas called nitrogen, in which animal life cannot be sustained.

The Greek a privative is found in several other words which form part of our language. It appears in azymes, mentioned in the preface to King James's translation of the Bible, and in the Rheims version of 1582. The word is made up of a, not; and zyme, leaven.

I subjoin several translations of the words found in Matt. xxvi. 17:

"In the first days o therf loaves."-Wiclij, 1380. "The fyrst daye of swete breed."-Tyndale, 1534. "The fyrst daye of swete breed."-Cranmer, 1539.

"On the fyrst day of the feast of vnleuened bread."-Geneva, 1557. "The first day of the Azymes."-Rheims, 1582.

"The first day of the feast of unleavened bread.”—Authorised, 1611. The a privative is found also in asbestos (a, not; and shennumai, I burn) literally unburnable. Asbestos is a species of fossil stone which may be split into threads and filaments from one inch to ten inches in length, very fine, brittle, yet somewhat tractable, silky, and of a greyish colour: also endued with the property of remaining unconsumed in fire. This stone is said to be found in Anglesey and in Aberdeenshire. Out of it the ancients made the cloth which is known under the same designation. By enveloping the body in a covering of asbestos, the ancients, in burning corpses, kept the ashes of the corpse separate from the ashes of the fuel, and so had the former for preservation in funereal urns.

EXERCISES FOR PARSING.

A pedagogue is a term of Greek origin equivalent to our schoolmaster. Pedagogue is a word which is now used contemptuously. In an oligarchy the interests of a few predominate. In a democracy the interests of the many prevail. The real and the apparent interests of men are sometimes very different. A polemical spirit is undesirable. Polemical writings are occasionally required. The character of the apostle Paul is very noble. Apostolical virtues are rare. The apostles received their mission immediately from Christ. Without enthusiasm the best of causes cannot be carried forward. Enthusiasm is in danger of degenerating into fanaticism.

EXERCISES IN COMPOSITION.

Words with their Prepositions to be formed into sentences.

F. R.

Fr. ballotte, a little ball

Fr. bannir, to banish

Sax. bare, naked

Fr. barguigner, to hesitate, chaffer

Sax. beoran, to carry

Fr. guiller, to conceal

Gr. glauben, to believe

Gr. belangen, to belong to

Sax. bereafian, to take away from

Sax. bestandan, to give

Fr. trahir, to betray

Sax. treoth, fidelity

Sax. bigan, to bow, to worship

Sax. bindan, to surround with cord

Fr. blamer, to blame
Sax. blosen, to be red
Welsh, bostio, to brag
Fr, border to cage
Welsh, braggio, to swell

Report the following anecdote :

G

ESCAPE OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY.

King James III., of Scotland, after his marriage with Margaret, Princess of Denmark, having disgusted his proud nobility by patronising and receiving into favour many persons of inferior rank, deep and dangerous intrigues were formed against him. By these minions and upstart counsellors he was speedily made aware that his brothers-Alexander, Duke of Albany, and John, Earl of Marwere forming conspiracies against him, and that the former aimed at nothing less than wresting the sceptre from his hand,—a fact which has since been proved by authentic documents. In 1482, Albany was committed to the Castle of Edinburgh, where he was kept a close prisoner by those who knew that his accession to power would assuredly be their destruction. He had not been long in durance until he formed and matured a plan of escape, which, with desperate courage, he executed in the following manner. Terrified by the mysterious fate of Mar, and aware that his day of trial was approaching, some of Albany's numerous friends in France or Scotland, contrived means to acquaint him that a small vessel, laden with Gascon wine, lay in the roadstead of Leith, by which he might escape if he made an effort. The tower in which he was confined was probably David's, for we are informed that it "arose from the northern verge of the rock on which the castle is founded, where the height of the precipice seemed to bar all possibility of escape." He had but one attendant (styled his chamber-chield) left to wait upon him, and to this trusty follower alone he revealed his intention. From the French vessel he received two small rumlets or barrels of wine, which luckily the castle-guard permitted to be carried into his apartment untasted and unexamined. On opening them in private, the duke found that they contained Malvoisie, and, what was of more importance, a strong rope and a waxen roll inclosing an anonymous letter, urging him to lose no time in attempting to escape, as the king's minions had determined he should die ere the morrow's sunset; and the billet ended by an assurance that the boats of the French vessel should await him at the shore of Leith. The first point to be gained was to lull the suspicions of the captain of the guard, for which purpose the duke invited him to supper, and by pressing him and three of his soldiers to drink freely of the Malvoisie, succeeded in partially intoxicating them. After gaming and drinking until the hour grew late, Albany found the moment for action had come! Rushing upon the captain, he snatched a long dagger from his baldrich, and buried it repeatedly in his breast; then, quick as thought, he despatched the intoxicated soldiers in the same manner, and, in token of his hostility and contempt (with the assistance of his chamber-chield), he savagely threw the bodies on the great fire that blazed in the stone fire-place of the tower; and there in their armour they broiled and sweltered like tortoises in iron shells. Having secured the keys of the doors, they locked them as they retired, and stealthily hurried to the wall, which they prepared to descend at the most retired part. The chamber-chield lowered himself first over the beetling crag, which is two hundred feet in height, but the cord proving too short, it slipped suddenly through his hands, he fell to the bottom, and there lay senseless. We may imagine how the heart of the blood-stained Albany must have beat at this terrible crisis! Every moment was fraught with danger, and his death or life were hanging by a hair. Rushing back to his apartment in the tower, he tore the sheets from his bed,