"You have drunk-out the cask. Children cannot well drink-out of goblets."--Anon. "He looked and saw what numbers numberless "Pour-out a glass of wine for the famished woman."—Anon. Milton. "The workmen, in standing out for the wages, have out-stood the appointed time "--Anon. "Sense and appetite out-vote reason." South. "A large majority of the constituency voted the old member out." Anon. "Better at home lie bed-rid, idle, Inglorious, unemploy'd, with age out-worn." Milton "This reverent leecher, quite worn out With rheumatisms, and crippled with his gout." Dryden. Denham "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined."—Psalm i. 2. Over produces many combinations. You look-over your workmen and find faults that you cannot over-look. A bad tradesman reaches-over his counter and overreaches his customers. Cisterns over-run, and drivers run-over. A river over-flows its banks, and the water flows-over the fields. You persuade an opponent over to your own party, and so over-persuade an associate that, he relinquishes your company. If you persuade a person over you cannot over-persuade him. In attempting to over-ride a competitor, take care you do not ride over him. The boy having run over his companion in the race easily over-run him. Other particles are of less frequent use. But not less curious are they. To back-stitch differs from to stitch-back. By reckon. ing his income a man learns how much he has coming in. The out-goings of a family should be regulated by its income. If I withhold my opinions I may continue to hold with you. He talks so much of bearing with me that I can hardly forbear to reprove nim. The poor man has been taken off as if he were the offscouring of the streets. That young girl was taken off at the early age of seventeen, being overtaken by disease. One general made an onslaught on the cavalry, while the other fell on the infantry. "Immediately the mountains huge appear Emergent, and their broad, bare backs up-heave Into the clouds," Milton. "Thou hast made my curdled blood run back, my heart heave up, my hair to rise in bristles."-Dryden Along side the cutter we coasted along the shore. The undertakings of your father are under-paid. The understanding was that you stand under the spout. The undertaker receives funereal arrangements under his care. "An under-plot may bear such a near relation to the principal design as to contribute towards the completion of it, and be concluded by the same catastrophe."-Spectator. "In under praising thy deserts Here find the first deficience of our tongue." Dryden. "Under two conditions the poet engaged to compose the eulogy."Anon. "For this assembling all the peers Drayton. An influx of The inlets are will be com Whose counsels now must under-prop the throne." He placed a line of props under the falling wall. gold causes bank-notes to flow out of circulation. more numerous than the out-lets, consequently you pelled to let out the water by artificial means. EXERCISES FOR PARSING. Our abodes out-last our bodies. Curtail your outlays if you wish for ease of condition. He laughed out-right. Let thine eyes look right on. You shall be driven out right forth. This way, right down to Paradise, descend. An over-much use of salt, besides that it occasions thirst and over-much drinking, has other ill effects. You have yourself your kindness over-paid. He gained a large fortune over the counter. Parents too often overpraise their children. Come o'er the brook, Bessy, to me. With an over-running flood God will make an utter end of the place. Were it not for the incessant labours of this industrious animal, Egypt would be overrun with crocodiles. Milk while it boils, and wine while it works, run over the vessels they are in. I shall not run over all the particulars that would show what pains are used to corrupt children. Should a man run over the whole circle of earthly pleasures, he would be forced to complain that pleasure was not satisfaction. The zeal of bigotry runs out into all manner of absurdities. The zeal of many outruns their discretion. COMPOSITION. As minds are differently formed and capacity varies with every successive individual, I am desirous of making another suggestion or two, which may possibly smooth the way to original composition for some whom the instructions previously given may have left in difficulty. I advise you then to accustom yourself to report as correctly as you can, to a child, something that has struck your attention, whether in what you have heard, what you have seen, or what you have read. I say report the substance by word of mouth. Endeavour to employ suitable words, to pronounce them correctly, and to put them together grammatically. At first you will commit errors; but, in time,, perseverance will enable you to overcome all difficulties. Make your report to a child, say a younger brother or sister; I mention a child, because in speaking to a child you will speak readily and naturally. There is another advantage in order to gain a child's attention you must take a simple subject, and on simple subjects you will not want words. Subjects such as I contemplate are constantly occurring wherever there are human beings. You may take as your theme some accident that has happened in the house where you reside, in a neighbouring mine, on the high road, or you may describe a bird's nest; the peculiar form, colour, and habits of the swallow, the dog tribe, the cat tribe, the daisy, the wild rose, the honey-bee, &c. Well, having described the object to a child, take your pen and write down as well as you can the very things you said, and having carefully corrected them according to the best of your ability, copy out the whole in your composition- book, Many children would be far better as an auditory than one child. And very desirable for your purpose is it that utility to others should be immediately in your view. For these reasons I advise you to become a teacher in a Sunday-school, or if that is not possible or not convenient, then gather around you a number of children and form a class. By preparing to teach them you will give your mind useful discipline, and in communicating to them what you know you will take effectual lessons in the difficult art of correctly expressing your thoughts. By teaching others you will best teach yourself. To diligence there is nothing impossible. Report to a child or two the following anecdote : SOUTHEY'S SCHOOLING. Here one year of my life was passed with little profit, and with a good deal of suffering. There could not be a worse school in all respects. Thomas Flower, the master, was a remarkable man, worthy of a better station in life, but utterly unfit for that in which he was placed. His whole delight was in mathematics and astronomy, and he had constructed an orrery upon so large a scale that it filled a room. What a misery it must have been for such a man to teach a set of stupid boys, year after year, the rudiments of arithmetic! And a misery he seemed to feel it. When he came to his desk, even there he was thinking of the stars, and looked as if he were out of humour, not from ill nature, but because his calculations were interrupted. But, for the most part, he left the school to the care of his son Charley, a person who was always called by that familiar diminutive, and whose consequence you may appreciate accordingly. Writing and arithmetic were all they professed to teach; but twice in the week a Frenchman came from Bristol to instruct in Latin the small number of boys who learnt it, of whom I was one. That sort of ornamental penmanship, which I now fear has wholly gone out of use, was taught there. The father, as well as Charley, excelled in it. They could adorn the heading of a rule in arithmetic in a ciphering-book, or the bottom of a page, not merely with common flourishing, but with an angel, a serpent, a fish, or a pen, formed with an ease and freedom of hand which was to me a great object of admiration; but, unluckily, I was too young to acquire the art. 1 have seen, in the course of my life, two historical pieces produced in this manner; worthy of remembrance they are, as notable specimens of whimsical dexterity. One was David killing Goliah; it was in a broker's shop at Bristol, and I would have bought it if I could have afforded, at that time, to expend some ten shillings upon it. They taught the beautiful Italian, or lady's hand, used in the age of our parents; engrossing (which, I suppose, was devised to insure distinctness and legibility); and some varieties of German text, worthy, for their square, massy, antique forms, to have figured in an antiquarian's title-page. EXERCISES IN COMPOSITION. HISTORICAL THEME. The formation of the Hebrew Tabernacle. PERSONAL THEME. What have been my thoughts during this day? POETICAL THEME. The stillness of the country. Form each of the following words into a simple sentence: girl; boy; dove; California; amendment; Adam; England; disturb ance. Describe a butterfly; a robin; a lark; a salmon; a mackerel; a sheep; a rabbit. Supply suitable adjectives in the ensuing sentences :- men must die. counsels. Carefully study the following conversation, and having done so, endeavour to imitate it. CONVERSATIONS ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.-No. I. "Well, I have failed again; a packer I am, and a packer I must remain, fond as I am of reading, and desirous as I am of getting an employment more suitable to my tastes. And yet, if I had fair play, I could, I am sure, do the counting-house work as well as some that are there."-"Not quite, William; true you are intelligent and trustworthy; you also write a good hand, and are ready at accounts, but you are a very poor Grammarian."-" Not so poor as you think; though I am, I grant, far behind you, Thomas; but then you have been at college, and ought to know Grammar.”— "Yes, and I am willing to teach you, for I am sure you will never get forward as you wish, and as I should like to see, until you can write your mother tongue correctly."-"I know that, and I have studied English Grammar; but it is very difficult."-"Yes, and you still write bad English: for instance, your letter of application for the vacant situation contains not less than three grammatical mistakes, and is enough of itself to prevent your success. How can you expect to rise in the world when you cannot speak and write English? In a counting-house they want their letters written grammatically. It would be a disgrace to a house to send out letters containing errors of Grammar like those which you commit."-"I dare say you are right; and so I must remain a packer."-"That does not follow; learn the English Grammar."-" A very easy precept, but a very hard job."-"Not so hard as you think."" Excuse me, I have tried, and I have failed."-"Because you tried by yourself.""By myself I must still try, or give it up."-" No, I will assist you, if you will make one more effort. Let us talk over the matter; think I can make the study easy to you. Once a-week we will converse together on English Grammar, and if you will only reflect in the intervals on what I say, and follow my guidance, I have no doubt you will, in time, understand the subject thoroughly."-"I agree, and am very much obliged to you for the offer.' O, never mind the obligation; brothers should assist each other, and I am very desirous to see you in such a position as your character and talents mark you out for."-"Let us begin this evening."-" Very well, and you must come to the parsonage every Tuesday evening at eight o'clock, and we will see what can be done." "Now, as a fundamental rule, you must observe that Grammar is a science in which authority goes a very long way. At first, you will do well to consider that everything depends on authority.' "What authority?"-"That of the best writers in the language. If you study English Grammar, then you take as your authorities or guides such men as Shakespear, Milton, Dryden, Johnson, Pope, Macaulay. Their practice is your model. As they write so you must write. Grammar then, you see, is, for our purpose, imitation. Those who write English Grammar derive the instructions they offer from the usages of the best English authors, or, as they are termed, the English classics."-"Classics!' why I thought the term 'classics' was confined to the Greek and Roman authors, such as Homer and Virgil."-" O no, every literature has its 'classics.' The word is derived from 'class,' and denotes those writers who, by common consent, are placed in the first class. The practice of such writers sets the fashion in the language in which they write, and they are followed by all who wish to speak and write that language correctly. Now you are to suppose that I have studied our English classics, and have hence ascertained how I ought to speak and write. In that study I have been preceded by others. Their conclusions afford me aid. Under that aid I have formed a system of rules, and that system of rules is called English. Grammar. English Grammar, then, you see, is a science. Science, you know, means knowledge; it is knowledge, the materials of which are systematically arranged; arranged, that is, into a system, arranged in a set order, and with a view to a certain purpose or result; and English Grammar consists of a continued set of rules derived from the practice of well-educated Englishmen, so arranged as to form a complete whole, and communicate useful information to the learner."—" Well, I understand that; but in our house every body says they does,' and you told me yesterday that was wrong.' It is wrong; remember I said that we are guided by the prac tive of educated Englishmen, and educated Englishmen say "they du."-"But what does the word Grammar signify? I thought a Grammar was a book; you say it is a science."-" It is both. Grammar is a word of Greek origin. It comes from gramma, which denotes a letter, a letter of the alphabet. Hence Grammar is the science of letters-letters, that is, employed to express ideas. Listen, letters represent sounds, and form syllables and words; F |