In preparing this edition, it seemed to me that the value and literary interest of the book might be increased by the introduction of a series of illustrative authorities. It is in the addition of these authorities, contained within brackets under each title, and also of a general index to facilitate reference, that this edition differs from the original edition, which in other respects is exactly reprinted. I have confined my choice of authorities to poetical quotations, chiefly because it is in poetry that language is found in its highest purity and perfection. The selections have been made from three of the English Poets-each a great authority and each belonging to a different period, so that in this way some historical illustration of the language is given at the same time. The quotations from Shakspere (born A. D. 1564, died 1616) may be considered as illustrating the use of the words at the close of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century; those from Milton (born 1608, died 1674) the succeeding half century, or middle of the 17th century; and those from Wordsworth (born 1770) the contemporary use in the 19th century.

In an elementary book like this there was no occasion to introduce earlier illustrations from the immature periods of the language, and why Shakspere and Milton have been chosen as important authorities it cannot be necessary to explain. Why Wordsworth is placed by the side of them may be shown in the words of another, which I prefer using rather than my own:

"Besides the power of Wordsworth's poetry to minister to a sense of the beauty of the world, both material and spiritual, there is a further advantage in it, still more directly connected with education. By no such great poet, besides Shakspere, has the English language been used with equal purity, and yet such flexible command of its resources. Spenser gives us too many obsolete forms, Milton too much unEnglish syntax, to make either of them available for the purpose of training the young of our country in the laws, and leading them to apprehend and revere the principles of their magnificent language. But in Wordsworth is the English tongue seen almost in its perfection; its powers of delicate expression, its flexible idioms, its vast compass, the rich variety of its rhythms, being all displayed in the attractive garb of verse, and yet with a most rigorous conformity to the laws of its own syntax. Those who know how much education must concern itself with man's distinctive organ, speech, will know also how to appreciate such a benefit as this."-Preface to "Select Pieces from the Poems of William Wordsworth." London : 1845.

In the quotations I have endeavoured, whenever it was possible, to make choice of passages that might have an interest as words of wisdom or of poetic beauty, and often of both combined, and I should rejoice to think that these fragmentary specimens may allure the student to the willing and happy study of the great masters of English poetry-to feed his moral and intellectual being from their pages.

In transcribing the passages quoted, I have been not seldom painfully

sensible of the wrong done by detaching them from the context, especially in observing how the completeness of poetic effect is often impaired by such rude severance. The precise references which accompany the quotations will render it easy to restore them to their connection, as may sometimes be found desirable. It may, however, on the other hand, be found that, so far as the excellence of style is concerned-the fitness and beauty and combination of the words-the fineness of the rhythm and the composition of the sentence, we are made to appreciate these things as well, when we take a passage that is characterized by them and consider it by itself. Look, for example, at the exquisitely simple beauty of the words that follow, and let the music that is made by them be audibly heard or silently felt-the words, each one of them, being no more than our common colloquial words, and yet made expressive of a rich flow of imagery by the admirable choice and apposition.

O, hear me breathe my life

Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
Hath sometime loved: I take thy hand; this hand
As soft as dove's down, and as white as it;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fanned snow
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.

Winter's Tale, IV. 3.

Here are words written more than two hundred years ago and yet now as fresh as if first uttered yesterday; and so it is well-nigh always with Shakspere's language, for when a true Poet writes in a matured language, it is in the unchanging and imperishable part of it that his imagination finds its abiding-place.

It is not meant that during the last two centuries the English language has been stationary. No living speech can be unprogressive, for the simple reason that new ideas must be expressed and new thoughts and feelings must have utterance. The text of Shakspere accordingly does not furnish examples for all the words in this volume, and sometimes it gives authority only for a different acceptation. The word 'extravagant,' for example, is not to be found in Shakspere, in that which is at the present day the most usual sense of the word, which then had not travelled so much away from its origin. When in Hamlet, it is said, that

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine

the passage does not exemplify the modern sense of the word, but it throws light upon it by recalling the primitive and etymological meaning.

In this respect the text of Milton may serve an excellent use for instruction in the language. If his diction is sparing in purely English idioms, and his choice and combination of words greatly influenced by his learning and his deep love of antiquity, those very qualities will serve, especially in connection with classical instruction, to call the student's thoughts to the deriv.

ative signification of words from Greek and Latin sources, and what may be generally called the Norman as distinguished from the Saxon side of the English tongue. Let the word 'recollecting,' for instance, be observed in these lines:

but he, his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised
Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears.

Parad. Lost, i. 528.

or, again, the somewhat curious use of the word divert' in these lines:

Alas, how simple, to these cates compared
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!

Parad. Regained, ii. 349.

These cases may suggest how this work can be employed in the etymological study of the language-a process which brings with it more good than mere acquisition. The use of etymology in disciplining the youthful mind to thoughtful habits has been specially commended by Coleridge, in the Aids to Reflection,' and it is his remark that

"In a language like ours, where so many words are derived from other languages, there are few modes of instruction more useful or more amusing than that of accustoming young people to seek for the etymology, or primary meaning of the words they use. There are cases, in which more knowledge of more value may be conveyed by the history of a word, than by the history of a campaign.”

The value of the historical consideration of words may be exemplified by one of the titles in the list, in this volume, 'Bravery-Courage.' The word 'bravery' has its early and its later use, and it is in the former that it is met with in Shakspere and Milton. The quotation from Julius Cæsar?' and come down

With fearful bravery, thinking by this face

To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage.

must not be mistaken for an illustration of what is now the usual sense of the word 'bravery.'

The study of this work may be made to illustrate another important fact in our language—the admirable copiousness that results from the combination of its Saxon and Norman elements. The correspondent words from these two great sources are not mere duplicates-to be used indifferently and at random, but each is often delegated to a distinct duty; each does its own appropriate and peculiar service and shows some shade of meaning, some special variation of the sense. The words 'apt' and 'fit,' for example, coming into the language from different sources, might be thought to be closely and strictly synonymous, and yet a delicate distinction of use is made beautifully apparent by the quotations from Shakspere, Milton and Wordsworth.

There is to be observed another and different process by which the lan

guage is in some degree impoverished, when one of two corresponding or equivalent words thrusts the other out of use, and when this happens, the Norman is usually the conqueror. We may be said to have given up the good English compound to underbear,' for the Latin-English word to support;' we have well-nigh lost the word, though Shakspere shows its good use from the lips of Constance :

leave those woes alone, which I alone Am bound to underbear,

The verb ' to better' is preserved along with to meliorate,' but the counterpart word to worsen' has been almost given away, perhaps for the sake of the three additional syllables that come in with its synonym to deteriorate.'

The word

Another change in the progress of the language is illustrated under the title to learn-to teach.' The first of these words formerly expressed not only its present sense, but was also synonymous with to teach,' for which use good authority may be cited from early writers and from Shakspere, while modern practice stamps it as somewhat of a vulgarism. has dropped one of its meanings, and being limited to the other, there is a gain in point of precision. Not to use Sacred Writ irreverently for this purpose, an historical illustration of this case has occurred to me in two of the English versions of the Bible. In that which is commonly called Cranmer's Bible,' and belongs to about the middle of the 16th century, a passage in the 119th Psalm is given in these words:

"O learn me true understanding and knowledge; for I havé believed thy commandments.

"Before I was troubled, I went wrong; but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good and gracious; O teach me thy statutes."

Here it is seen both words are used, and 'learn' employed in the sense of 'teach;' but in the standard version, which belongs to the beginning of the 17th century, much as the style is controlled by adherence to the earlier versions, this passage is changed by the substitution of the word 'teach' for

'learn :'

"Teach me good judgment and knowledge; for I have believed thy command

ments.

"Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word. "Thou art good and doest good; teach me thy statutes."

The use of this volume as a text-book may be extended much beyond the method of instruction prescribed in the Practical Exercises,' and in connection with it various considerations of the character and structure of the language will suggest themselves. The synonyms of intensity,' or of 'active and passive' words, may induce a more extended examination of words, which, while kindred in meaning, express many different degrees and variations of the meaning. The title "see-look" is given and ex

plained, but let it be observed that these are but two of a large family of words connected with the function of sight, which the student might supply and discriminate the several shades of signification. In this way a just sense of the copiousness of the language will be acquired, and the habit by degrees gained, of accurately using and distinctly apprehending words that otherwise would bring only a confused meaning. In studying the nature of that copiousness it will be seen why often there are many names for the same object, or for the same general thought or feeling, as in Arabic, there are, it is said, no less than four hundred names for the lion.* The copiousness of the English tongue may be further illustrated by its etymology, and a word becomes a theme by the study of its origin and history. Let an examination, for example, be made of such words as 'trivial,' ' pagan,' 'rustic,'' civil,'' urbane,'' courteous,' &c., &c.

6

The teacher, who succeeds in animating the student with an interest in the processes of instruction contained in this volume, need be at no loss to find manifold opportunities for the study of the language to which this textbook may serve as an introduction and a help. Let judicious selections be made, and studied with special reference to the choice and the combination of the words. Single sentences or passages from Shakspere, may show that wonderful mastery of the language which is proved by the impossibility of substituting another for any given word. Take that most familiar passage-Portia's appeal to Shylock, and contemplate not so much the tranquil sublimity of the sentiment as the expression of it, and there will be seen the purity and simplicity and beauty of English speech in its highest perfection :

The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes;
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His scepter shows the force of temporal power;
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;

* "Les Arabes ont, dit-on, quatre cents mots pour exprimer le lion, tandis que nous n'en avons qu'un, parce que cet animal, étranger à nos climats, ne peut être pour nous qu'un objet de curiosité; au lieu qu'il est pour l'homme des déserts un ennemi redoutable, un sujet continuel d'aventures et de récits, et que, tenant beaucoup de place dans sa vie, il a dû en prendre davantage dans sa langue. Ainsi, les Arabes, le considérant sous le rapport de sa taille, de sa force, de sa couleur, de son port, de ses appétits, de ses inclinations, etc., l'ont nommé d'autant de noms qu'ils ont observé, ou qu'ils lui ont supposé de qualités physiques ou instinctives. C'est pour la même raison que la langue allemande a un grand nombre de mots pour désigner un cheval."

DE BONALD. 'Recherches Philosophiques,' tome ler.