A careful survey of a French dictionary on the part of one who is skilled in derivation, would bring to light an extent of obligation owing by the English to the French language, of which ordinary students have no idea. I subjoin a few words by way of specimen, taken under several letters of the alphabet nigno mabom lo sie

FRENCH WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.'

French.
adage

aigle

aile

amour

angle

antre (Shakspeare)

aro

English.

Latin.

adage

adagium

eagle
aisle

aquila
ala

Many French terms are employed in English either in their native form or slightly altered, and of these some even in France are of modern origin. We have dragoon from the name of the soldiers with whom Louis XIV. carried on the war, which received the name of his dragonades, against his French Protestant subjects in order to compel them to become Catholics. From the noun dragoon we have the verb to dragoon into. A roué, in slang language, a black-leg, is literally a wretch who deserves to be broken on the wheel-metaphorically one who has the same manners as the courtiers of the profligate Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, who is said to have given the name to his abandoned associates. Guillotine, a term which we derive from France, is the name of an instrument for decapitating political offenders; it

received its name from the inventor, and was first used amidst the early horrors of the first revolution in that country. Translations from the French have led to the in-coming amongst us of many French terms and phrases, greatly to the corruption of our mother English. Formerly, translations were said to be "done into English." The phrase is not inappropriate, for many translations from the French are miserably done, a large portion of every page consisting of French words, and idioms in an English dress; resembling a Frenchman aiming to speak English by putting on an English costume. Common-place novels, too, have brought into vogue many Gallicisms. Most blame-worthy is this defacement and corruption of our language, when they are perpetrated by historians of whom better things might be expected. "This practice has been well taken off by the Spectator" in No. 185 of that work, which is strongly recommended to the perusal of those who possess it or can readily borrow it.

Having read the remarks in the "Spectator," and read also what I have written in this lesson, let the student proceed to write an essay on

THE FRENCH ELEMENT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Words with their proper Prepositions.

begierig, desirous of

Dote on,

Doubt of,

Dwell in, at, on,

Eager in,

Embark in, on board of,} embarquer, to go into a barque

for,

Embellished with,
Emerge from,

Employ in, on, about,

Emulous of,

Enamoured of,

bellus, beautiful

COMPOSITION.

Report the following extract:

ON THE CHOICE OF AUThors.

If we are to read, it is a very important rule in the conduct of the understanding, that we should accustom the mind to keep the best company, by introducing it only to the best books. But there is a sort of vanity some men have, of talking of, and reading, obscure,

half-forgotten authors, because it passes as a matter of course that he who quotes authors which are so little read, must be completely and thoroughly acquainted with those authors which are in every man's mouth. For instance, it is very common to quote Shakspeare; but it makes a sort of stare to quote Massinger. I have very little credit for being well acquainted with Virgil; but if I quote Silius Italicus, I may stand some chance of being reckoned a great scholar. In short, whoever wishes to strike out of the great road, and to make a short cut to fame, let him neglect Homer, and Virgil, and Horace, and Ariosto, and Milton, and, instead of these, read and talk of Fracastorius, Sannazarius, Lorenzini, Pastorini, and the thirty-six primary sonnetteers of Bettinelli; let him neglect everything which the suffrage of ages has made venerable and grand, and dig out of their graves a set of decayed scribblers, whom the silent verdict of the public has fairly condemned to everlasting oblivion. If he complains of the injustice with which they have been treated, and call for a new trial with loud and importunate clamour, though I am afraid he will not make much progress in the estimation of men of sense, he will be sure to make some noise in the crowd, and to be dubbed a man of very curious and extraordinary erudition.-Sydney Smith.

DIVERSE STEMS.

I have intimated that the French, Italian, and Spanish (and one or two others might be added), are, under the name of the Romance languages, very similar to each other, and similar also to their common mother the Latin. To all these languages the English is indebted. Hence it becomes both interesting and important to see how they are related one to another; and that the rather, because with comparison much may be learnt of the origin and propagation of languages. I therefore place before you a tabular view of

Now to study this tabular view properly, take each English word in turn, and compare it with the same word, first in Latin, then in French, then in Italian, and then in Spanish. You will gain instruction if you also alter the order, taking the Italian before the French, or the Spanish immediately after the Latin. Now look at these words father, pater, padre, padre, père. They are, you see, the same term under small modifications. The same is the case with several other words. And if you omit the English, as belonging to a different family of tongues, and compare the rest together, you will find with a few exceptions an almost identity. In the comparison you must make some allowance for idiom; for instance, the article appears in French where it is not placed in Italian, and so you have LA terre, THE earth, for terrâ, earth, of the Latin, and terra of the Italian. The Spanish carries the article so far as to place it before possessive pronouns, thus, el tu nombre, the thy name. The inferiority too, of the French is seen in that it is unable to render word for word "forgive our debtors," and is obliged to employ a circumlocution as "pardon those who have offended us." I offer these remarks merely as suggestions relative to the manner in which the table may be studied.

I subjoin a few instances of words in our tongue borrowed from the Italian and the Spanish: