The retina, or eye-net, the immediate seat or rather instrument of vision, is the net-like expansion of the optic nerve, on which objects are drawn, and from which they are made visible by the mind.

Reticulated denotes that which is made like net-work. Hence the meaning of reticule or little bag made of net-work, sometime since much in use among ladies.

To ruminate is to pass and repass the food through the rumen or gullet in order to its repeated chewing. Hence the phrase to chew the cud. Metaphorically, to ruminate is to muse, to reflect calmly :

"As when a traveller, a long day past,

In painful search of what he cannot find,

At night's approach, content with the next cot,
There ruminates a while his labour lost."

In prose we say to ruminate on,—that is, to meditate upon :"He practises a slow meditation, and ruminates on the subject."— Watts, "On the Mind."

Bankrupt, a term of French extraction, properly denotes a trader or money-dealer whose bank or bench is broken, the last condition of commercial destitution :

"A bankrupt is defined a trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors."-Blackstone.

The terms rustic and rural differ in their application, the first being said of persons, the second of things. Rustics are often insensible to the loveliness of rural scenes.

COMPOSITION.

Form into a sentence each of these Words with their proper Prepositions

F. R.
fido, I trust

forma, form

genus, kind

gratulor, I congratulate

scio, I know

necto, I bind

sacer, sacred

sentio, I feel, think

signum, a sign

sto, I stand

consul, a counsellor

tendo, I stretch

tango, I touch

traho, I draw

contra, opposite

versor, I am engaged in

verto, I turn

vinco, I overcome

copie, a transcript
respondeo, I answer
venio, I come
cura, care

To consist of, to consist in, and to consist with, have each a different meaning. To consist of has reference to the materials of which an object is made up; to consist in has reference to the substance or essence of a thought; to consist with has reference to the character or dignity of an agent or actor. It consists with the character of a wise man to expound doctrines in which the welfare of his fellow-men consists: that exposition he makes by words which consist of sounds, or by books which consist of letters. The wealth of a nation consists not so much in the number as the heart, the intelligence, and the sinews of its inhabitants,

HISTORICAL THEME,

Moses at Mount Horeb,

CONVERSATIONS ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR.-No. V. ENGLISH DICTIONARIES.

"I suppose, from what you said in our last conversation, that there are several dictionaries of the English language?"-"Yes, there are several."-" Well, then, which am I to choose?"-" The selection in part depends on the amount of money you can spare for the purpose."" My stock is small, but I would rather wait until it has increased, than purchase an inferior book."-" Very good, but what should you say to five guineas for a dictionary ?"— "I can afford no such sum; the utmost that my means will allow me to expend in the work is a guinea, or a guinea and a half." 'Let us set the limit at a guinea and a half- "-"Nay, I am not sure shall be able to raise that sum, and I am sure it will be a long time first."-" You did not hear me out; I was going to say that taking a guinea and a half as the highest price, I would mention several dictionaries which range from that down to six or seven shillings."-"Thank you, that plan will suit me very well." -"With a guinea and a half for our highest point, we exclude the dictionary of the celebrated Doctor Samuel Johnson. I may, however, remark that to that learned man we owe the commence. ment of sound lexicography in regard to the English tongue.""Lexicography! what is that?"-"Dr. Johnson himself shall inform you; in his celebrated dictionary he defines lexicography as art or practice of writing dictionaries.' Now can you tell me the derivation of the word?"-"Graphé means writing?""Yes, what does the former part of the word mean?"-" Is it connected with lego or logos?""With both; the original Greek is Lexicon, which, from lego, I speak (logos, a word), may be rendered word-book."-"I wish word-book' had been in use, I should then have had no difficulty: I like those Saxon compounds, they are so obvious in their import; how much better would word-book have been than dictionary or lexicon: but where is the difference between dictionary and lexicon ?"-" In general there is no difference between them, though dictionary is by usage applied to word-books relating to the English or the Latin, and lexicon is applied to word-books relating to the Greek, the Hebrew, and other learned languages."" Then, why have we two words ?"-"As a matter of fact we have two words, because the English has been supplied with its terms from two languages-the Greek, whence we get lexicon, and the Latin, whence we get dictionary. But we have

'the

more than two words which in their general import correspond to word-book; there is vocabulary from the Latin, and glossary from the Greek: the former from vox, a voice or articulate sound, signifies a list or collection of words with or without their several significations, and is mostly applied either to all the words of a language considered collectively-thus we say, 'the English is a rich and varied vocabulary;' or to a number of words put together for a certain purpose, be that number smaller or larger--thus, a Latin vocabulary would be a selection of such words as a beginner in the language ought first of all to learn. Glossary is, so to say, a learned book, and denotes a list of terms hard to be understood, selected and given for explanation."-"What is the origin of glossary?"-"It comes from the Greek glossé, or, as the word appears in another form, glotté, which means a tongue, the organ being given for the product of the organ, that is, word."-"Then glotté is the term we find in polyglott ?"-"Yes, polyglott is from the Greek glotté, tongue, and polys, many, and so signifies a manytongued book; for instance, the Sacred Scriptures in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, and English."-"You think highly of Dr. Johnson's dictionary?"-"Yes."-"Do you not think I could procure a copy in an old book-shop for a small sum ?'-"" Probably, but though I sometimes go to such places myself in search of book-rarities, I advise you to avoid them. Old books are not good for young students; you will obtain more real, because more true, knowledge in one volume of 'THE POPULAR EDUCATOR,' than, by careful searching and sifting, with years of labour, you could obtain from a shop full of old books; old books are very much like old clothes-they are worn-out; knowledge is ever in movement, and ever on the advance; consequently the sum of knowledge undergoes incessant change-what was once thought true is proved to be false; what was once thought exact, is proved to be inexact; therefore, dictionaries which contain the sum of knowledge in detailed explanations, come in time to be wrong; consequently, old English dictionaries lose, at least, a part of their value as guides to learners. Besides, Dr. Johnson was but imperfectly acquainted with the constituent elements of the English language, and therefore he was not a thoroughly competent etymologist.' "To whom, then, are we to look for sound instruction in etymology?"-"The science is yet in its infancy; I cannot recommend a wholly satisfactory guide. Dr. Johnson's dictionary was published in 1818, in five quarto volumes, under the editorial care of the Rev. H. J. Todd, who enlarged and improved the original. Yet this work comes not up to the mark. Nor could I recommend as a sufficient etymological guide a very valuable English dictionary, published in 1844, in two quarto volumes, by Pickering, the author being Charles Richardson, LL.D., who for his unquestionable deserts in this work has lately received a small pension from the crown. However, by their price, Johnson's and Richardson's dictionaries are beyond your reach."-" Again, then, I ask, what dictionary am I to purchase?"-"You may possibly find resources to procure a copy of Webster's; if not, Reid's Dictionary of the English Language, eighth edition, published by Oliver and Boyd, of Edinburgh, which can be had for six shillings and sixpence, would answer your purpose. There are, however, several reprints of both Webster's and Reid's excellent works.

LATIN STEMS.

we

It is curious to observe what a controlling influence the subject matter has in the metaphors employed and the derivations that are brought into play. We lay down railways; we set up an inn; so we set up a carriage after we have made our fortune in that shop which we set up when we were poor. As we may set up a shop, so may we open a shop; but we must begin business, or may set up in business. Having built or rented, we may open a warehouse, as we may open a shop. So in professions-parsons occupy a pulpit, and solicitors take to the desk, while barristers hold briefs, and judges fill the bench. We draw with a pencil and paint with a brush. Pictures as well as books are composed, and both must be sketched before they are begun; but the one ends in a painting, the other in a treatise; the one is the canvas, the other is the volume. If we are charitably inclined and abound in wealth, we build a church, or found an hospital; but if we expend our money for our own pleasure or convenience, we erect a mansion and lay out pleasure-grounds. Probably we may begin to travel, and then we make a voyage by sea and take a journey by land. A young man entering one of the universities reads for honour, and studies for the church. If your son is a clergyman, he does duty on a Sunday, but if he is a dissenting minister, he preaches. A methodist minister travels, a minister of the establishment is an incumbent; the latter has a living, the former is on a circuit. Lawyers advise, physicians prescribe, clergymen admonish, and confessors direct. A ship impelled by a steam-engine sails, a train drawn by a steam-engine runs. Handicraftsmen receive their remuneration in wages, clerks in salaries, lawyers in fees, and ministers of religion in stipends.

Emolument, a term always applied to the receipts of the higher classes, reminds one of the time when there was in each manor or vicinity one mill, the lord or owner of which received as his pay either a portion of the flour there ground or its equivalent in money. Hence emolument, properly that which comes out of the mill-stone, came to denote gain from office or high employment.

This fact leads to the observation that words to a full mind are singularly suggestive; they are also singularly conservative, keeping and tacitly transmitting from age to age facts and history which relate to their origin, and have something to teach respecting ancient manners and customs. Gray has said—

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

It is equally true that the word curfew (couvrefeu, put out the fire, or fire-extinguisher), preserves a recollection of a day long since passed and gone, when the Norman, being sovereign lord of England, published his behest that at a fixed moment the fires of the Saxon peasantry should be extinguished.

Stipulation (stipula, L. a straw), preserves an indirect record of the legal custom once prevalent of presenting a straw as a token of the delivery of possession to one who had purchased an estate; and who keeping that straw as a token of his proprietorship, regarded it as the condition on which he held the land.

In the phrase "signing a deea," you have a trace of the times when men unable to write their name, made instead the sign of the cross in attestation of the part which they took in the matter.

Calculation (calculus, L a little stone), recalls the old custom of employing pebbles (like the little balls in the Abacus) by which to perform questions of arithmetic (arithmos, G. a number), or the science of number.

His library may remind the student of the primitive period when the rind or bark (liber, L.) of trees served instead of the then unknown parchment and paper.

*The common forms in composition, are extinguo aud extinctus.