inoperative in diminishing the expence of education. In some respects it must even enhance it. Another plan suggests itself for consideration, which, upon the whole, appears to combine, as much as possible, the advantages required, with the least amount of objection. Though it may be impossible to bring the masses requiring education to the university, may it not be possible to carry the university to them? The university possesses a large amount of available resources and machinery, with which the present extent of education conferred by it is by no means commensurate. These resources, consisting partly of pecuniary means, and partly and principally of men of high talents and attainments, at present without adequate opportunities of employment, may be made instrumental in planting the seeds of academical institutions throughout the country, by establishing professorships, lectures, and examinations, leading to academical honours, in the most important places in the kingdom. For instance, at first, and by way of experiment, professorships and lectures might be founded, say at Manchester and Birmingham, the great centres of the manufacturing districts, and in the midst of the densest population. The institution of these professorships and lectures would be strictly analogous to the original foundation of the universities themselves. They would require little cost beyond the necessary stipends of the professors engaged. Students, after due attendance on such lectures, would undergo examination before a body of examiners sent from the university; such examinations to be of precisely the same character and governed by the same rules as those required in the university. After such attendance on lectures and examinations, students, having obtained proper certificates of proficiency and general conduct, might be entitled to receive from the university of Oxford academical degrees, with only such a limitation of privi leges as would be strictly equitable and necessary. The admission to such lectures, and non-resident degrees, might, it is thought, be safely opened as widely as possible, without requiring any theological test except in the case of theological degrees. The objections to throwing down this barrier to indiscriminate admission within the walls of the university remain in full force; but the question of admission to academical instruction, under the proposed plan, assumes a different form, and may be regarded as almost, if not entirely, relieved from those objections. Without trenching on this principle, persons having obtained nonresident degrees might, it is suggested, be made capable of adoption into the full privileges of the university upon complying with the terms of subscription, &c., at present required of its members. The funds for maintaining such professorships, lectures, and examinations, might be provided partly from the Clarendon Press, and partly by payments to be made by the students themselves, and ultimately (as might be fairly expected) by private endowments and henefactions. In order to facilitate the immediate commencement of such a system, without involving the necessity of costly buildings, communications might be opened with the proper authorities of the places mentioned; who would no doubt gladly provide the requisite accommodation for the delivery of lectures, holding examinations, &c. By degrees the system might be extended through the whole country, and similar institutions might be planted in the principal towns, in convenient districts, such as Norwich, Exeter, Leeds, Canterbury, &c. Cambridge would, of course, take its due share of the work. The nucleus of a university being thus formed in each place, the same laws which have developed by degrees the institutions of Oxford, might be expected, in some proportion at least, to create a collegiate and tutorial system subordinate to it. A plan of this kind would immediately open a wide field of occupation for fellows of colleges, who, being at present not engaged in tuition, are often obliged to quit the university to seek a maintenance, and thus present the palpable evil of a non-resident body unconnected with academical duties. It would extend the benefits of university instruction to the utmost possible limits. It would reduce the expense to the lowest point. Wherever its institutions were planted, the immediate residents would be provided with the opportunity of completing the education of their sons, without parting with them from under their own roof. The cycle of instruction itself would embrace the various subjects comprehended in the university examinations, and, as a distinct branch, theology according to the doctrines of the Church. Probably five or six professors would be necessary at first for each locality. The suitable income for each may be estimated at not less than 500l. a-year, with a special guard against their taking private pupils. The opportunity of holding such professorships would be an inducement to men of talent to devote themselves to particular branches of literature at the universities, instead of wasting their lives, as is frequently the case at the present day, in the fruitless pursuit of barren professions. to maintain. BATTERSEA And, lastly, by originating such a comprehensive scheme, the universities would become, as they ought to be, the great centres and springs of education throughout the country, and would command the sympathy and affection of the nation at large, without sacrificing or compromising any principle which they are bound TRAINING COLLEGE. We are glad to be able to give a favourable report of the prospects of this Institution. The National Society has recently voted the sum of £1000 for five years, and this, with the sum that has been raised by the exertions of the committee formed for ascertaining whether funds could be raised for its support, place its continuance beyond doubt. The committee consists of the Earl of Harrowby, the Venerable Archdeacon Sinclair, William Cotton, Esq., and the Rev. C. B. Dalton. Further promises of support may be notified to the Rev. C. B. Dalton, Rectory, Lambeth. ST. MARK'S COLLEGE. - The Rev. A. R. Ashwell, of Caius College, Cambridge, has been appointed Vice-Principal of St. Mark's, in place of the Rev. Samuel Clark, resigned. To Correspondents. ERRATA. In January number, page 22, line 15, for ". 'properly," read "* posely." pur Page 23, line 2, for “тå”Aßdnpa,” read “rà”Aß♪npa." Line 20, for "Christian names," read "names. Line 21, for "Zosomus," read "Zosimus.” A VILLAGE SCHOOLMISTRESS.-We know of no book on Needlework combined with Cutting-out. There is one without specimens, published by the Irish National Board. Nor do we know of any on Knitting Stockings. OMEGA hardly states the passage from the letter of Onesimus correctly; the defence does not seem to us called for. C. L. C.'s suggestion does not seem to meet the difficulty. LATIN ETYMOLOGY. No. VII. ONE of the most marked blemishes in the current lexicons is the carelessness with which the power of the preposition in compound verbs is placed before the reader. For example we find in Mr. Riddle's work, Prætorqueo, to twist forward or round, Plaut. ;' but the error is not bis own. He has translated, with all the requisite precision from his usual authority, Lünemann, who has: Prætorqueo, vorwärts drehen," oder umdrehen, Plaut. What idea is intended to be conveyed by the words "twisting forward" it is not easy to see; nor is much added to the notion of twisting by the addition of the word round. Without turning to the passage of Plautus one may readily infer that præ in præ-' torqueo has the same power which it possesses in præustus, burnt at' the end,' præacutus, sharpened at the end,' præsepire, to close (a passage) with a fence at the end,' præsecare, to cut off the end of," &c. But the passage, where the word occurs in Plaut. Rud. iii. 2, 12, Prætorquete injuriæ collum, removes all doubt; for the phrase is a metaphor from wringing the neck of a fowl, that is: wringing what projects. But the word also occurs in Columella (iii. 18) and with the same power, prætorquere caput surculi, to twist the end of a vineshoot. The preposition ad in its ordinary significations of motion to' or 'presence near,' is one that causes little trouble. But Lünemann and his translator seem to fancy that the little word may have the two opposite senses of presence and absence. Thus the former tells us that Plautus has the phrase amorem procul adhibere, in the sense of entfer nen, i. e., as Mr. Riddle translates it, remove. And the latter, apparently desirous of supporting the German writer, for once gives us something in addition to Lünemann's article, in the words, "N.B. Adhibere aliquem procul, to remove to a distance,' Plaut." Now the fact is, that the passage to which Mr. Riddle refers is precisely that to which the German referred, viz. Trin. ii. 1, 30. As amor in this passage happens to be a personification, Forcellini quotes the passage with a substitution of aliquem for amorem, which probably has led to the error. That adhibere procul is a contradictory phrase has long been felt. Ritschl has procul abdendust, others with greater probability procul habendust, which is all the metre requires. It is not unfrequent for a single corrupt passage to be thus made the foundation for a special meaning in our lexicons; but it was an ingenious improvement to support such an error by quoting the self-same passage in a disguised form." On the use of ad with the sense of favourably' it may be enough to point to addicere, as used of auspicious omens, annuere 'to nod assent,' and then to correct the error in Mr. Riddle's translation of his German authority. Anluchen, we believe, invariably means to smile upon,' and thus Lünemann was correct in giving it as the equivalent of arridere. To laugh at,' Mr. Riddle's phrase, is of very different power and very ill-suited to the two passages he quotes; for in Cic. de Opt. Gen. Or, c. 4, arrideri is put in direct opposition to derideri, and the passage from Valer. Cato, which is given in Forcel VOL. IX.NO. III. C lini, by the added word ocellis, tells us that kindly smiling,' and not 'ridicule,' was intended. But we proceed to a more difficult question, the consideration of those verbs which are said to receive from the prefix ad an intensive power. The doctrine, supported by the authority of A. Gellius (iii. 16), is, that ad in such words denotes' near completion' (proxime finem); and such an explanation is in some measure confirmed by the fact that this use of ad is for the most part limited to the perfect participle, as in affectus, attritus, accisus. It is known that the Germans, in the syllable ge prefixed to their perfect participle, have the analogue, so to say, of the Latin preposition con. For this we have the authority of Grimm. Now if con before a perfect participle is employed to denote an action quite completed, ad in the same position is well-fitted to denote one nearly completed. The theory of Gellius is avowedly founded on the authority of Cicero, sicuti Cicero et veterum elegantissimi locuti sunt. But the authority of Cicero himself may be opposed to the theory. In the Or. de Prov. Cons. c. 8, are the words-Bellum affectum videmus, et vere ut dicam, pæne confectum-where it is clear that affectum expresses something short of pæne confectum. Perhaps a more just explanation is to be found in the idea that ad denotes added or repeated action. This idea of repetition seems to belong to many Latin verbs which have ad prefixed. Thus we seem justified in translating accelerare, to quicken more and more;' adaugere, 'to increase more and more;' admonere to warn again and again;' addubitare, ' to doubt and doubt;' adbibere, 'to drink and drink, i. e.,' to drink deeply; appropinquare to draw nearer and nearer' (for propinquare alone might signify to draw near'). If this view be right, accidere is to cut again and again,' and hence to cut deeply.' Lünemann in the words anhanen, anschneiden, einschneiden, and Riddle in the translation to cut at, cut into, seem both to have missed the meaning. The first passage they refer to, Cæs. B. G. vi. 27, they can scarcely have read, although they are so unusually precise in their reference. The Latin writer tells us that the alcis, having no joints to its legs, slept by leaning against a tree, and that the hunters finding out the favourite tree, in the absence of the beast, accidunt arborem, i. e., cut deep into it; so that the pressure of the beast brings the tree, and consequently the helpless beast also, to the ground. Again, both our lexicographers refer to Silius for accisa ornus, where the verb has the meaning. But the fact is, Silius is only borrowing a phrase of Virgil's (Æn. ii. 626), who would have been a better authority than the poet of the silver age. Now the words of Virgil seem decisive upon the point; Antiquam in montibus ornum Quum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant Et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat. very same Moreover the metaphorical usage of accisis rebus accurately agrees with the idea of a deep cut into the power of a state. Attritus again means 'rubbed and rubbed until a deep hole is made;' adustum, a deep burn;' adesus, eaten deeply into ;' attondere, 'to cut and cut the hair,' i. e. cut it short, cut it close.' The last word occurs repeatedly in Plautus, both in its natural sense and used metapho rically; and the meanings always agree with what we have said. Celsus also has the phrase, caput attonsum habere, which our medical men will not be at a loss to translate. According to what we have said, affecta æstate, and such phrases in Cicero, will signify 'the summer being far advanced,' which is something less than the summer being all but finished.' The use of ad in the sense we have been now discussing has been in many of the words wholly lost sight of both by Lünemann and his translator. CLAUDIUS. 66 ON THE PERVERSION AND CORRUPTION OF WORDS. (Continued from page 52.) BEFORE We close this part of our subject we will give a few more instances of the application of innocent terms to malignant purposes. To "impute" properly signifies "to consider as belonging to," "to put down to one's account;" hence, we use very correctly the terms imputed righteousness:" but in our familiar language we always use "imputation," as conveying the idea of reproach. The same remark may be made with regard to the word "reflection." Why should the finger be that of contempt which points out a "singular object?" there is nothing in either of the words which would properly authorize any such emotion. "Propensity" corresponds as nearly as possible with inclination;-why do we make the worse scale preponderate? Having "anger," "rage," "wrath," to choose from, why cannot we leave to passion its real extensive and indifferent signification? We are tempted to erase the word which we have used with its just latitude, because modern writers have most outrageously chosen to make "indifferent" equivalent to "bad." Now, with swarms of these insipid, emasculated, but withal venomous terms, it is half melancholy, half ludicrous, to hear the continual boastings of the force and fulness of our native language. A great part of this worthless stuff is of comparatively recent introduction. Surely a language might afford to throw away some of its boasted copiousness, when so much of this copiousness tends, not to the nicer distinction, but to the more chaotic confusion, of ideas. When the fashionable world wishes to express sovereign contempt, it calls a man a "strange person;" an influence from above, which reminds us of Habington's country justice, "Whose nonsense Corrupted had the language of the inn, Rather let us go back to crack rope, losel, doddypoll; let us be indebted to Italian for its scoundrel (scandarulo), to dog-Latin for its nincompoop (non compos); anything is surely better than the downright nonsense of calling "bad" "indifferent," without even any of those qualifying words with which it was used formerly, and then not very justifiably, as, "indifferent good," "indifferent honest," &c. It is, perhaps, rather the fashion to over-estimate, in the present day, the force and simplicity of the language of the lower orders; but we really |