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crawl over soils carefully prepared, so as to receive and retain distinctly the traces of their transit. The Tortoise was found to have left impressions almost identical, or very closely resembling, those preserved in the ancient rock: which had been ascertained to belong to the first-formed class of rocks, deposited from the sea. Prior to the discover of this Stone, geologists had not obtained evidence of the existence of any but the lowest organised plants and animals, such as zoophytes and marine mollusca, in these rocks. This stone may therefore be regarded as an exponent of indefinitely remote antiquity, referring high organization to a period infinitely beyond all p evious supposition, or even imagination. The traces of the showers which may have beaten on the Tortoise, were sagaciously detected by an eminent living geologist, and deciphered from impressions made by the rain-drops falling on the soft sand; and the direction of the wind then blowing, by the unequal depth of the rain-pits, and the unequal height of its little circular wall, as the shower struck, obliquely, the ripple-ruffled surface. It is only on a tidal shore that such impressions can be received and retained: received during the ebb, and covered by fresh layers of fine sand at the flood. The traces of the ancient showers and winds, however, are not seen on the specimen deposited in the Crystal Palace, but on others, now in London.-Note from the Lily and the Bee, by Samuel Warren.

LOSSES BY PHONETIC SPELLING.

*** LET me observe by the way, and as something not remote from our subject, but, on the contrary, directly bearing upon it, that I can conceive no method of so effectually defacing our English tongue, nothing that would go so far to empty it, practically at least and for us, of all the hoarded wit, wisdom, imagination, and history which it contains, as the introduction of the scheme of so-called "phonetic spelling," which some have lately been advocating among us; the principle of which system is that all words should be spelt according as they are sounded, that the writing should be, in every case, subordinated to the speaking. The gains of such a change would be insignificantly small, while the losses would he enormously great. The gains would be the saving of a certain amount of labour in the learning to spell; which amount of labour, however, is absurdly exaggerated by the upholders of the scheme. This labour, whatever it is, would be in great part saved, as the pronunciation would at once put in possession of the spelling; if, indeed, spelling or orthography could then be said to exist. But even this insignificant gain would not long remain, seeing that pronunciation is itself continually altering; custom is lord here for better or for worse; and a multitude of words are now pronounced in a different manner from that of an hundred years ago, so that, ere very long, there would again be a chasm between the spelling and pronunciation of words.

This fact, however, though alone sufficient to show how little the scheme of phonetic spelling would remove even those inconveniences

which it proposes to remedy, is only the smallest objection to it. The far deeper and more serious one is, that in innumerable instances it would obliterate altogether those clear marks of birth and parentage, which, if not all, yet so many of our words bear now upon their very fronts, or are ready, upon a very slight interrogation, to declare to us. Words have now an ancestry; and the ancestry of words as of men is often a very noble part of them, making them capable of great things, because those from whom they were derived have done great things before them. Words are now a nation, grouped into families, some smaller, some larger; this change would go far to reduce them to a wild and barbarous horde. Both of these objections had been urged by Bacon, who characterizes this so-called reformation, "that writing should be consonant to speaking," as "a branch of unprofitable subtlety;" and especially urges that thereby "the derivations of words, especially from foreign languages, are utterly defaced and extinguished."

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Even now the relationships of words, which yet are so important for our right understanding of them, are continually overlooked; a very little thing serving to conceal it from us. For example, what a multitude of our nouns substantive and adjective are, in fact, unsuspected participles, or are otherwise most closely connected with verbs, with which notwithstanding, until some one points out the fact to us, we probably never think of putting them in any relation. And yet with how lively an interest shall we discover words to be of closest kin, which we had never considered till now but as entire strangers to one another; what a real increase will it be in our acquaintance with and mastery of English to become aware of such relationship. Thus "heaven" is only the perfect of" to heave ;" and is so called because it is "heaved" or "heaven" up, being properly the sky as it is raised aloft: the "smith" has his name from the sturdy blows that he "smites upon the anvil ; "wrong" is the perfect participle of "to wring," that which one has "wrung or wrested from the right; "guilt," of "to guile" or beguile; to find "guilt" in a man is to find that he has been "beguiled," that is, by the devil, instigante diabolo, as it is inserted in all indictments for murder, the forms of which come down to us from a time when men were not ashamed of tracing evil to his inspiration. The "brunt" of the battle is the heat of the battle, where it "burns" the most fiercely. "Haft," as the haft of a knife, is properly only the participle perfect of "to have," that whereby you "have" or hold it. Or take two or three nouns adjective; "strong" is the participle past of "to string;" a strong man means no more than one whose sinews are firmly "strung." The "left" hand, as distinguished from the right, is the hand which we "leave ; " inasmuch as for twenty times we use the right hand, we do not once employ it; and it has thus its name from being "left" unused so often. "Odd" is properly owed; an odd glove, or an odd shoe, is one that is "owed to another, or to which another is "owed for the making of a pair-just as we speak of a man being " singular," wanting, that is, his match. "Wild" is the participle past of " to will; a "wild" horse is a "willed" or self-willed horse, one that has been never tamed

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or taught to submit its will to the will of another; and so with

a man.

[We have extracted the above from a little volume just issued by the Rev. R. C. Trench, "On the Study of Words; Five Lectures addressed to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training School, Winchester," which we hope to notice at length; mean. while we recommend it to our readers.]

Correspondence.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTRUCTION.

SIR,-In the September number of your Journal, I find that the subject of Sabbath-school instruction has attracted attention; for which I am thankful. I feel it a duty to state what I have experienced in Sunday schools. *

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Every reasonable man must upon reflection acknowledge that a good schoolmaster is of great and invaluable service to the inhabitants of any parish, and more particularly among the lower classes of society they will also agree that a schoolmaster's profession is far from being a healthy one, if they take into consideration the quantity of bad air he receives into his lungs every day; the constant anxiety for his pupils' improvement; the amount of patience, forethought, and study, which are at all times required of him to meet the daily return of his school-room work. Would it not, then, be a work of Christian charity to free him from the toil of Sunday, and let him have it as a day of rest, both to soul and body? I consider that, if the schoolmaster was allowed to have the Sunday to himself, such a course would be of great advantage to his school. He would then be able to improve his store of religious knowledge every Sunday; and, what is still more necessary, his mental powers would be strengthened and refreshed, and he would be thereby more likely to bear patiently and with a Christian spirit the crosses, disappointments, and trial he meets with during the week.

Perhaps it may not be amiss to point out here the work many masters have to perform on Sundays. Many have to begin school at a quarter-past nine, and teach until half-past ten; then go through the singing Psalms and chants in school; afterwards, to take the children to church and to lead the singing there; after service, they have to take them to school and dismiss them. In the afternoon, they have to go through very much the same course as in the morning; and, during the whole time, they are expected to interest, instruct, and keep their schools in order and this is no easy matter in the case of those boys especially, who, during the week, are engaged in out-of-doors employment. In addition to this, it is the custom in some places to take the children back to school after the afternoon service, when the master has to read prayers and dismiss them again. Thus it will be seen that he has six or eight hours of mental and physical exertion. Sunday, instead of being a Sabbath to him, is the most laborious day of the week.

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[NOTE. We have extracted, as our correspondent will see, such portions of his letter as presented any new feature. The rest of it would have been little more than a repetition in other words of what has been already said. We did not, ourselves, advert particularly to the schoolmaster's case; because, if the usual course of proceeding is followed, we do not at all see how, in the majority of instances, the services of the schoolmaster can be dispensed with. If the plan we have ventured to recommend, or something like it, should be adopted, he will reap the advantage of the change in no small degree. At all events, his claim for relief may stand as an additional reason for modifying the system, where it is in excess. K. P. surprises us somewhat, by mentioning the alehouse and cricket-ground as obstacles to sending home before church those children that are near their homes. We are loth to suppose that the former of these, at all events, offers any temptation to such as are the general attendants of Sunday schools. Besides, as of course they are sent home after the school is dismissed, what becomes of them then? He has also misunderstood us in another point. We only recommended those to be dismissed before church whose homes were at no great distance, and whose friends, or some of them, were regular attendants at church. Here, too, our recommendation on the former occasion would materially relieve the master, or person in charge of the children, during Divine service.]

Notices of Books.

AN INTRODUCTION TO ALGEBRA, AND TO THE SOLUTION OF NUMERICAL EQUATIONS. BY J. R. YOUNG, LATE PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE ROYAL ACADEMICAL INSTITUTION, BELFAST. (London: Simms and M'Intyre.)

PLANE TRIGONOMETRY (PART II.). BY THE REV. J. W. COLENSO, M.A., RECTOR OF FORNCETT ST. MARY, NORFOLK, LATE FELLOW OF

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. (London; Longman and Co.) THE aim of every writer on elementary mathematics should be to develop, in a simple and perspicuous manner, the fundamental principles of science, to illustrate these principles by the solution of an adequate number of appropriate and well-arranged examples,-and thus to lay a sound foundation for the prosecution of an extended course of analytical research.

When the student has obtained a thorough knowledge of the principles of any branch of science, and has acquired the necessary dexterity in all its fundamental operations, he has surmounted the difficulties which unavoidably beset his first advances, and has approached the confines of those higher and more profound inquiries yet to be entered upon, and which will claim his best attention and call forth his utmost energies. In his onward progress, the student will still occasionally meet with "knotty points," but they will be more easily unfolded and removed than those previously encountered, and he will speedily acquire a❝tact and expertness" in the management of analytical expressions, which will prepare and fit him for pursuing higher researches, and for entering on the more profound investigations of those sublime truths. which are so profusely scattered around and beside the pathways of

science. Though Introductions to Algebra and Treatises on Trigonometry are, year after year, teeming from the press in abundance, still there is room for good rudimentary works on both these subjects, and every attempt to simplify and illustrate their first principles should be favourably received by those who are charged with the instruction of youth, and ought to meet with that success which its merits may truly deserve. Holding the opinion that good elementary books are treasures of great value," we hail with peculiar satisfaction the appearance of Professor Young's "Introduction to Algebra," and the Rev. J. W. Colenso's Plane Trigonometry,"

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The various works of Professor Young, on elementary and the higher mathematics, have been many years before the public, and are well known to, and appreciated by, all mathematical students; they have been instrumental in improving the taste and stimulating the ardour of many a youth aspiring after mathematical fame. His treatise on algebra has, we believe, reached the fourth edition, and though the present Introduction is in some degree subordinate to the former treatise, it will be found to contain all those principles requisite to prepare the student for carrying on his inquiries to any extent. the first three chapters of this work the fundamental principles and operations of algebra are very clearly explained and illustrated; and after having fully exemplified the various operations in algebraic fractions, and treated of the determination of the greatest common measure and least common multiple of two or three quantities, the author concludes his third chapter in the following terms:learner has now been conducted through a course of operations sufficiently extensive to justify the expectation that all the fundamental rules of algebra have become familiar to him, and that he has acquired some expertness in the management of algebraical expressions." In the fourth chapter (numbered III. by mistake) the author proceeds "to show the application and use of the principles and processes with which the learner has been occupied in actual calculation, where definite arithmetical meanings will be given to symbols which have been employed hitherto without any regard to special interpretation." This and the fifth chapter are devoted entirely to the treatment of simple and simultaneous equations containing two and three unknown quantities, and throughout these chapters many valuable and appropriate remarks are interspersed. The theory of indices or exponents, and the reduction of surds, as well as the management of imaginary or impossible quantities, are then treated of in the next chapter, and these are followed by the discussion of the method of solving quadratic equations, accompanied with the usual number of examples. There are certain equations of the third and fourth degrees which are reducible to quadratics, and to the method of reduction of such equations the author has given a considerable share of his attention. The subject of this (the eighth) chapter is novel in elementary books, and we agree with Professor Young in thinking that it has not hitherto been fully examined, though it is well worthy of attention. Several examples of the third and fourth degrees are here solved by quadratics, and others are proposed as exercises for the student. The general so

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