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LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WE have authority for stating that there is no in carrying out his experimental improvements. truth in a paragraph which has appeared in several and since his death it is proposed to make some of the papers, to the effect that the editorship of provision for his two surviving daughters. The the "Quarterly Review" has passed into the hands subscription list is headed by the proprietors of of the Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, the bio-"The Times," and of "The London Journal," grapher and son-in-law of the late Dr. Arnold. The Rev. Whitwell Elwin, to whom the editorship was confided at the suggestion of the previous editor, the late Mr. Lockhart, during his last illness, still occupies that honourable post, and performs its duties very much, we believe, to the advantage of literature, and the satisfaction of that political party with which the journal is identified.

A subscription is on foot for a memorial of the late M. Foudrinier, the ingenious and indefatigable perfecter of paper-making machinery. It was formerly intended to purchase an annuity for M. Foudrinier, who had spent much money

with £100 each; and Messrs. Pirie and Sons, and Cowan and Sons, papermakers, £50 each; and there are many contributors of lesser sums. Messrs. Prescott, Grote, and Co., bankers, are treasurers of the fund.

The third and fourth volumes of Mr. Macaulay's "History of England" are definitely announced for December.

On December 1st, Mr. Charles Dickens commences a new novel, entitled "Little Dorrit." The popularity of this author's works may be inferred from the fact that the proceeds of " Bleak House" amounted to about £13,000, and had an average sale of 35,000 copies per month.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Vocabulaire Symbolique Anglo-Francais, pour les Elèves de Tout Age et de Tout Degré. Par L. C. Ragonot, Professeur de la Langue Francaise. Second Edition. Price 5s.

It has been said, that when a man speaks more languages than one, he is so much more the man. This, of course, has reference to his intellectual qualifications, inasmuch as a man is not necessarily more moral for his acquisition of languages; although, to a man who goes deeper than the

mere surface, and learns the deep, hidden meanings found in words, there must, of necessity, come a stronger perception of the moral beauty and spiritual connection with the mind conveyed in those words; and thus there is every possibility of his receiving a strong moral tone from his constant intercourse with such an elevating study. This, we maintain, is the only true and legitimate manner of studying a language; and yet, how few people know even their own language in this

thought all right enough till she received an answer that she had better go to the nearest seaport, for they didn't sell sailors in Paris. What she wanted was a matelas. A friend of ours asked, at a restaurant in Paris, for “du pont." "Pourquoi?" said the Frenchman. "La manger," replied our friend. "Want a bridge to eat? said the astonished waiter; "my-what a stomach!" Our friend, being somewhat bashful, felt, after that, he could neither eat du pont nor du pain.

Now, we think that M. Ragonot's book will obviate this difficulty; as, for such words, you have an engraving of the article spoken of, to assist the memory. The plan of the book is this,-not only to give the word you desire to know, but also all the words which immediately belong to it. Suppose, by way of example, you desire to know the name for some part of the body, you look in the "Table of Contents," and there you find "L'homme," "man,"-first, “ collectively;" then "individually,"-" morally,""socially,"- physical,"-"normal state of man,"

way! How few stop to inquire why such a word | different signification. As an illustration, we remeans such a thing, much less to inquire how member an anecdote of a lady going to buy a that thought is expressed by another nation-mattress, and she asked for a matelot, which she men who have been under other influences than our own! Many people content themselves with the idea, that what they know of the language of the country to which they belong will serve their turn, and is quite enough for them. Well, for good souls whose thoughts travel no farther than from hat to boots, and from boots to hat, omitting that most important part which lies, or should lie, immediately beneath that strange article of dress vulgarly called a "tile "-namely, brains, we suppose that it is enough that their "seat of thought" should not have too many visitors seated thereon at once, lest the feeble receptacle should crack; for it is just possible, it might be impossible ever to put such "minds on the stretch," it being highly probable they would not prove elastic. Therefore, such must remain in nubibus-not the "glorious cloudland," but the land of fog. With such we shall waste no words; in short, had we not been accused of "paying a compliment" within the last half-hour, we would say that our readers (!) need not, in the least, apply these remarks to themselves, as we flatter ourselves that the fact of" titles,"-" primitive man,"-" men's dress," their being subscribers at all to such a magazine shows they are not afraid of work. So," gentle readers," for we know you are gentle, though you are "Controversialists" (which is an ugly name) we trust that you will not consider our preaching is to you, and that you will allow your tiles" to sit very complacently on your pates. Well, we were talking of language, or, rather, the study of language; and we think most people agree that, on the whole, French is the most useful of the European languages. We should be glad, moreover, to hear that every one had determined to "parlez vous," if only for the sake of remaining at perfect peace with our neighbours; for we think there would be little chance of the two governments quarrelling, if the people understood each other well, and could communicate their thoughts one to the other. Therefore, we desire to see a unity of the two natious, not only in feeling, with regard to the present war and commerce, but in speech, literature-everything, in fact, that can help to break down the barrier of separation between us.

The old idea, that a man must spend a life's study upon a foreign language, is fast giving way; and experience shows, that for all the practical purposes of conversation and literature, the French language may be acquired in a very short time with energy and close application. Means for the study of the French language are becoming every day more and more numerous; and we are glad to see that it is worth the while of educated Frenchmen to offer themselves as teachers and writers for the English public. There is now hardly a town in England which cannot boast of a French teacher; and books may be had by thousands. This brings us to our task, namely, a short notice of one of the most sensible books which it has been our lot to meet with of late; we mean the book by M Ragonot.

We have no doubt many of our readers, who have studied a foreign language, have found great difficulty in fixing in the mind words which do not often occur in conversation; also those which have almost the same sound, but a very

then "ladies' dress," "children's dress," &c., &c. Well, suppose we desire to know a few of the parts of the human body simply-say the head. Looking, as we said, in the "Tuble des Matières" for "physical man," it refers us to page 4, where we find

L'Homme Physique
La tête est composée
de-
Le crâne
Les cheveux

&c.

Physical Man

The head is composed

ofThe skull

The hair

The face

The scalp

The forehead
The temples
The nape
The eyebrows
The eyes
The eyelids
The eyelashes
&c.

La face, figure, visage
Le cuir chevelu
Le front
Les tempe
La nuque
Les sourcils
Les yeux
Les paupières
Les cils
And so for any other part of the body, and, in fact,
of almost any other thing. Then, again, the en-
gravings assist the memory materially in remem-
bering the words given. On several pages of
the book we have about thirty engravings-the
book, being quarto size, admits of this number.
It will be readily seen that the engravings form
an important part of this work, serving to give a
description better than any amount of verbal
matter could.

Some estimate of what the book is may be formed from the fact that it is quarto size, conItains eighty pages, on several of which we have counted as many as 230 words well explained. One advantage in the work is, it can be used with any method of instruction, and will not interfere with the labour of a teacher, inasmuch as it thoroughly instructs a student in the details of the French language, without the possession of which its study is dry work.

In conclusion we may say, that the "getting up of the work does every credit to Messrs. Ackerman and Co., the engravings being executed in a most spirited manner.-E. B.

Aids to Self-Culture.

THE ESSENTIALS OF GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.-No. V.

STUDY is an earnest thing. In study Thought and Labour find their union-point, and in Speech they find expression and continued life,

"Making a curious pencil of the tongue;"

man, in the colours of speech, preserves his ideas, widens their utility, and multiplies their force. Grammar and Composition, like all other studies, require a due proportion of theory and practice. In our present essayings we have striven to exhibit the "essentials" of these topics, so arranged, that as soon as a new truth has been gained, it may be reduced to practice, and thus, by that use which breeds a habit in a man, become a permanent potency of the intellect. How far we have succeeded, those who have, with diligence and honesty, laboured to improve themselves by our teaching, can best testify. Our first course of instruction in these topics wants only one more effort, and it is finished. To this we must gird ourselves, and with ready earnestness strive to make these "Aids to Self-Culture" really and truly so. To become so, laborious practice-the self-exertion of honest study—is needful. Will it be withheld from us now? No! every self-educator

will remember the truth the poet so beautifully sings:

"The smallest effort is not lost;

Each wavelet on the ocean tost

Aids in the ebb-tide or the flow,
Each rain-drop makes some flowret blow;"

and act like a believer in the consoling verity thereof.

Those various classes of words, the nature and use of which we have formerly, to some extent, explained and exemplified, are quite sufficient of themselves to enable man to construct perfect sentences, so long as the facts or topics upon which he discourses are purely categorical, i. e., express, positive, and absolute. But it is seldom that man can become the possessor of thoughts whose truth and accuracy are universally, unalterably, and unmodifiedly correct. So much that is uncertain in itself, so much that must be uncertain in consequence of man's limited powers, so much that is uncertain because of man's want of the habit of inquiry and investigation, requires utterance, that some means becomes requisite to express these uncertainties; and where everything is changing around us, as well as everything within us is so subject to variability, some mode of indicating the degree and intensity of these mutations is needful. In this necessity the adverb takes its origin.

Adverbs may, therefore, be philosophically defined as that class of words which, being added to perfect sentences, modify any part or parts of the essential idea or ideas expressed therein or thereby. More practically, the definition may be stated thus:-Adverbs are words which modify any other word or words expressive of essence or attribution, or, to

use more common, though less accurate language, adverbs are words conjoined to verbs and adjectives, to express some change or modification in the meaning they convey.

The words italicized in the following dirge are adverbs:

"To-day is a thought, a fear is To-morrow,

And Yesterday is our sin and sorrow;

And Life is a death

Where the body's a tomb,

And the pale sweet breath

Is buried alive in its hideous gloom.

Then waste no tear,

For we are the dead; the living are here,

In the stealing earth and the heavy bier.
Death lives but an instant, and is but a sigh,
And his son is unnamed Immortality.

Whose being is thine? Dear ghost so to die

Is to live, and life is a worthless lie.

Then we weep for ourselves, and wish thee good-bye."-Beddoes.

The following table may be advantageously studied, as exhibiting at one glance the chief notions to which the modifying influence of adverbs may be applied. We do not believe that it is completely exhaustive of the subject, or that it includes all the kinds of differences which may be indicatable by adverbs, but it contains many of them, and may therefore be useful.

I. TIME.

II. PLACE.

TABLE OF ADVERBS.

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1. Quality-e. g., Fairly, secretly, justly,
slowly.

2. Quantity-e. g., More, exceedingly.
3. Affirmation-e. g., Really, truly, surely,
certes, yea, doubtless, &c.

4. Negation-e. g., No, not, nay, least, &c.
5. Similarity-e. g., Alike, as, so, equally.
6. Difference-e. g., Otherwise, except.
7. Union-e. g., Together, wholly, totally,
universally, &c.

8. Separation-e. g., Apart, asunder, &c.
9. Comparison-e. g., Rather, less, more.
10. Illustration-e. g., Namely, for example.
11. Mode-e. g., Somehow, headlong, &c.
12. Degree-e. g., Generally, enough, &c.

EXERCISE XXXIV.-Insert the proper adverbs in the following extracts :→→→

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"Sloth has —, is a part of our

advises -, assists -, adventures

takes all ->

defends and

and- been denominated the rust of the soul. The habit is acquired, or, -, it nature to be indolent."-Todd.

EXERCISE XXXV.—Place adverbs of the kinds denoted by the words in parentheses wherever such words occur :

"What precious drops are these

Which (Manner) each other's track pursue,

Bright (Manner) young diamonds in their infant dew?"-Dryden.

"The tear (Place) childhood's cheek that flows

Is like the dew-drop on the rose;

(Time) next the summer breeze comes (Place),

And waves the bush, the flower is dry."-Sir W. Scott.

"Time hath laid his hand

Upon my heart (Manner), not smiting it,

But (Manner) a harper lays his open palm

Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations."-Longfellow.

EXERCISE XXXVI.-Underline each adverb in the extracts below, and indicate by numbers placed above each the class and sub-class in the table to which it belongs:"Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears.

Yet slower yet. Oh! faintly, gentle springs

List to the heavy part the music bears.

Woe weeps out her division when she sings.

Droop herbs and flowers,

Fall grief in showers,

Our beauties are not ours.

Oh! I could still,

Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,

Drop, drop, drop, drop,

Since Nature's pride is now a withered dafadil."-
"-Ben Jonson.

"Why should we doubt of that whereof our sense

Finds demonstration in experience?

Our minds are here and there, below, above;

Nothing that's mortal can so quickly move."-Denham.

"Did men always think clearly, and were they at the same time fully masters of the language in which they write, there would be occasion for few rules."-Jamieson.

Adverbs should be placed as near as possible to the word or words whose signification they are intended to modify.

EXERCISE XXXVII.—Alter and improve the position of the adverbs italicized in the following passages :—

"Of perfect knowledge, see, the dawning light
Exquisitely foretells a noon most bright.
Springs of endless joy are here breaking forth,
Buds there the promise of eternal worth."-Young.

"Her bosom to the view was only bare."-Dryden.

"He had suffered the woodward only to use his discretion in the distant woods. In the groves about his house he allowed no marking hammer but his own."-Gilpin.

Prepositions are words indicative of the relations which the mind perceives among the objects upon which thought is exercised, or among its thoughts themselves.

The relations perceived determine the particular preposition which should be employed.

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