into the meaning of every thing that belongs to his lesson. This habit is so essential, that the value of every school book must be considered as depending in the degree in which it is calculated to promote it. Picket's Grammar will encourage inquiry, and satisfy it, far better than any other that we have seen. But the part of this book which we most highly esteem, consists of nine pages, in which the common prefixes and affixes of English words are defined. Whatever will aid the scholar in learning the exact meaning of terms, is of real value to him. We have already remarked, that, to ascertain the etymology of a word, generally aids the mind greatly in fixing its true signification. This idea is ridiculed by many, but it is not the less correct. No one pretends that the original word or words, of which a modern one may be found to be composed, furnish precisely the meaning now given to it; but to ascertain the radical meaning, and then observe the modifications in form and meaning, which it has undergone in passing to its present state, exercises the mind sufficiently to make a lasting impression. Interest is excited, facts and circumstances are brought to light; and the sense of the word, which, but for these, would have passed through the mind with little notice, will now abide in the memory. Horne Tooke applied the science of etymology to the most difficult class of words in the language. Let any person who has used the Diversions of Purley say, whether he has not a more definite idea of the meaning of the prepositions, conjunctions, and adverbs, of which the etymology is there given, than he could possibly have obtained from common dictionaries, or from attending to the meaning given them by modern usage. We believe, that no person who reads that work attentively, can fail of observing, that those who disregard the science of etymology, however learned they may be in others, are very liable to use the minor parts of speech vaguely and incorrectly. Every one knows that the principal difficulties, attending the formation of a correct style, arise from this class of words. Few scholars have any means for determining, definitely, their signification. If they consult their dictionaries or masters, the case is equally hopeless. We greatly need a dictionary which shall give the etymological signification of these " 'winged words" in a manner so familiar, as to be comprehended by the mere English scholar, together with such examples as will show how they have passed to their present form and use. But, to return to Mr Picket; who, we said, had done well to define prefixes and affixes. We shall give an example relating to affixes, commencing on page 120. En is a verbal termination expressing force or energy; as, from the noun height, comes the verb to heighten; from the adjective dark, comes the verb to darken; from the adjectives less, hard, deaf, come the verbs to lessen, to harden, to deafen. Ate, signifies to make or act; as, alienate, to make alien; personate, to act the person; assassinate, to act the assassin; criminate, to charge with crime; fabricate, to make a fabrication. Verbs ending in ate, draw after them a family of responding rules in other grammars; but, Ize, or ise, is a verbal termination, and signifies Adjective Terminations from the Latin. The reader will observe that no words are given, except such as are purely English, when the ter mination is removed. Before closing this article, we wish to express the opinion, that nearly all artificial rules for writing and speaking would be rendered unnecessary by a work which should supply the deficiencies of our dictionaries. We need little instruction as to the right manner of using words, which we perfectly understand. If any one is comEnt is the Latin participle under another form, petent to give the etymology of English but meaning the same as the preceding; as, adher-prepositions, conjunctions, and adverbs, and ent, adhering; indulgent, indulging; provident, to define the radical ideas which they now providing. express, we believe he can do a more important service to philological science than any man has yet done. A work of this character, faithfully executed, would render the greater part of every grammar unexamples; and also point out the common of the meaning of these words, by numerous necessary. It should contain illustrations errors which are committed, from ignorance of their true meaning. If Noah Webster, or any one else; can do this, we think he should for his labour. do it, and that he would be well rewarded us. Ous is merely the Latin adjective termination in this termination and the Saxon word wise, meaning Ar, signifies belonging to; as, angular, belonging oracle, single, title, takes u into the last syllable Ward is derived from the Saxon verb wardian, Yappears to express plenty of that of which the primitive is the name; as, wealthy, plenty of wealth; worthy, plenty of worth. Negative Adjectives. ; The negative adjectives express the negation of those qualities which the preceding confirm. The negative is formed in two ways; either by the prefix un, or in, or by the termination less. The former has been already explained. Less is the imperative of the Saxon verb lessan, Termination of the Personal Noun. the same; as, liar, beggar. Or is a Latin termination, having the same sense Ary is also a frequent termination of the personal We mention Mr Webster, because we have no evidence, that any other gentleman in this country is so competent to the task;-and, also, because the brief account of the work which he is now engaged in publishing, contained in the newspapers, permits us to hope, that he has attempted something of this kind. Analysis of Vocal Inflections, as used in Reading and Speaking, designed to ren der the principles of Walker's Elements more intelligible. Andover. 1824. WE have understood that the Rev. Dr Porter, and that it was originally prepared for the of Andover, is the author of this pamphlet, use of his students. It may be thought not altogether a proper subject of criticism, but as it is an uncommonly practical, comprehensive, and judicious treatise, on an elegant accomplishment, and a useful branch of edu cation, we are not willing to lose the oppor tunity of recommending it to our readers. The Analysis is designed to facilitate the study of Walker; and something of this kind was wanted. Walker was, perhaps, unrivalled as a vivú voce exemplifier of those principles, the discovery and the exposition of which do his name much honour. In the practical department of elocution, he may must be acknowleged to be often vague, have had no superior. But, as a writer, be prolix, and obscure. His mind, if we may judge from his writings, does not seem to have been trained and disciplined to methodical arrangement. His thoughts were con In examining the rules of syntax, we no- stantly and exclusively directed to practi ticed a few which are better than the cor-cal excellence; and, accordingly, his works An, as a termination, signifies belonging to it is one of the signs of the possessive case in the Saxon language, and may be explained thus: he that is of, or belonging to; as, grammarian, he that professses to be acquainted with grammar; republican, one belonging to a republic. on elocution are, in many places, too diffuse dissolve." You will hardly believe this pos- chandelier, the effect of which is excellent. and miscellaneous, and have too little of a sible, and yet it is literally the fact. It The music is likewise very good. The first systematic form to make good class books. requires two or three days' attendance to tune usually played in British theatres, is With reference to Walker's remarks on drill one's muscles into proper order for the "God save the King," when all rise and inflections, Dr Porter says, "The conviction occasion. Oratory indeed is not the forte uncover. The company is very tolerable, that he [Walker] was treating a difficult of the Scotch. I have heard but few speak- and the pieces, whenever I have been pressubject, led him to the very common mis- ers at the bar, but they were no better than ent, have gone off well; the house is best take of attempting to make his meaning the professors. In short, I have not yet attended on Saturday evening, as private plain by prolixity of remark and multi-heard in pulpit, forum, or college chair, a parties on that night must break up at plicity of rules;" and, with regard to his single speaker, who would be considered twelve, and of course they are not so comown work, The view of these elements, above mediocrity on our side of the Atlan-mon as in the preceding part of the week. to which he [Walker] devotes about a hun- tic, and the majority are intolerable. dred and fifty pages, after he enters on inflections, I here attempt to comprise in a short compass. The rest of his work may be read with increased advantage, if the new classification which I have given, should be intelligible." To our clerical readers, in particular, we would recommend Dr Porter's tract. They will find that it bases the inflections of elocution on those of conversation; that it compresses the phraseology of the rules, and thus places the principles of the rules in a much clearer light. We regret that the author of this pamphlet did not add to his analysis of inflections, a simple theory of tones as expressive of emotion. No department of elocution is, in our opinion, less understood than this; and in none are there more or worse errors in reading and speaking. The whole apparatus of analysis, definitions, and rules, are no where more wanted than here. What is commonly called a tone in reading or in speaking, is nothing else than the substitution of the tone of one emotion for that of another, or the expression of emotion where none is implied. Now the best possible remedy for such faults, is a thorough analytic investigation of tones. We cannot but hope, that an author so well qualified for the task, as the writer of this analysis of inflections, will be induced to publish a brief and practical treatise on this interesting subject. The number of students attending the lectures, during the present session, is about twenty-five hundred, of whom six or seven hundred are medical. The lecture rooms are by no means so beautiful as those in our own Medical College, nor do the professors generally lecture as well, that is, not as eloquently, though perhaps more learnedly. Dr Hope, for instance, rants as badly as any understrapping actor, whom I remember to have heard; and any thing like rant, connected with a performance so rigidly didactic in its nature, as a chemical lecture, produces an effect of the most ludicrous kind. Just conceive of a professor in a black gown, delivering such a sentence as this: "The sea-water is evaporated in large shallow pans," with arm extended, and all the circumstance of a school orator spouting, "Yea, all which it inherit, shall A few days since, B and I visited They have here a custom, indecorous in Holy rood, where we saw a series of grim the highest degree, that of applauding the kings, from Fergus to James the Seventh, lecturer by clapping and stamping; I hardly the greater part of whom never existed anyrecollect when my nerves have been more where, except on the walls of the palace, "horrified" than they were by the first or in the noddles of certain addle-headed specimen of this kind of salutation to a historians. The full length figure of Robert venerable professor. Moreover, as soon as Bruce is a very fine one, and that of Queen the hour appointed to each teacher expires, Mary, though somewhat defaced, is the most the hearers rise without the smallest cere- beautiful picture I have ever seen of her. mony, and leave him in the lurch. Once, I do not mean that the painting is remark indeed, I knew this to happen in the very ably good, but only that it gave me a better midst of a story, of which the lecturer re-idea of the beauty of the original, than I sumed the thread the following day, as if have been able to get from any other. We nothing had happened. To do equal justice, were then shown Mary's apartments, in however, I believe the same, or similar cus- which, by the way, no genteel domestic of toms prevail in Philadelphia. the present day would endure to reside. Rizzio's blood on the floor, Lord Darnley's armour, boots, gloves, &c. were among the curiosities of the place. The boots resembled those which fishermen now use, on the banks of Newfoundland. In one of the apartments were two pictures, one of Jane Shore, and the other of Nell Gwinn, both very beautiful faces, but the latter so exquisite, that it is difficult to cease looking at it. I do not believe that any woman was ever so beautiful. Many of the churches are uncomfortable beyond all conception. Last Sunday I was present at one, which, in this particular, would beggar description. I have been trying in vain to hit upon some mode of conveying to you some idea of it, but language was unfortunately made before people had any notion, that it was ever to be employed for such a purpose. I have seen edifices, in the construction of which, beauty was sacrificed to convenience, and vice versû; but here beauty, convenience, light, and air were disregarded, without any one possible equivalent. The fact is, that they divide an old Gothic cathedral, when they can find a whole one, into two, three, or more separate places of worship, and crowd them with pews, so narrow, that a seat in them is little better than one in a Yankee stage-coach, containing sixteen insides, the last being rammed in by the driver, who, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and, with his shoulder applied to the door, secures the whole mass as effectually as the contents of one of their own trunks. In much the same manner was I crowded into one of the aforesaid pews, snugly constructed behind an immense pillar, which served to conceal the preacher, as well as a considerable portion of the congregation, and was fain to relieve the tediousness of a great portion of the service by decyphering the inscription on an old monumenta: plate, which commemorated the assassination of the Regent Murray. There are a great many Americans here this session, and a considerable portion of them are Yankees. There is no city, if you will allow me the parody, but is vexed by their phizzes. Strangers, however, are no vexation to Auld Reekie, for the gude town is in a great measure supported by visitors of various kinds. The theatre in Edinburgh is small, but very pretty. It is illuminated by gas-lights, arranged in the form of a single superb The days at this season have a very gloomy appearance, even when they are perfectly clear. The sun is so low, that noon looks like our evening, or rather afternoon just before sunset. He rises and creeps along a few hours, just above the Pentland hills, casting long shadows across the streets, and slides down again, leaving us in need of candles by four o'clock, or earlier. He is now, however, on the ascent again. I cannot say that this arrangement suits me quite as well as our own more vertical suns, and am glad that I am not called on to remain here the remainder of my days. To make up for the present short allowance of daylight, they have a superfluity of it at midsummer, when there is scarcely any darkness. The weather is quite mild yet, nor is it ever so cold here as with us, but the winters are more unpleasant, rainy, and foggy, and the streets are shockingly muddy. Indeed, to judge from our experience hitherto, a Scotch winter is certainly a very different matter from a New England one. It is fall weather, and that is all. There has nothing appeared, as yet, like snow, and hardly any frost. I do not know where Thomson got his description of a man perishing in a snow-storm. The inhabitants, however, seem to be agreed, that the present season is unusually mild. They are generally very careless of themselves. Every one seems to have a cold, and there is sometimes so much coughing in the lecture rooms, that it is difficult to hear the lecturer. They laugh at me, some- | had gone half way, it rained, and when I I see, occasionally, in my walks, the robinred-breast, so famous in nursery ballads. It is a pretty, sociable little bird, and I feel a great respect for it, on account of that affair of the Babes in the Wood. It is very like a wren, or small sparrow, having the neck and breast brownish red, and quite different from either of the birds which go by the name of robin in New England. As winter approaches, it becomes very tame. nite present and the indefinite past; and, agreeably to the principle we have previously stated, these are the only tenses which should be recognised in our grammars. In some cases the past participle assumes a form different from the indefinite past tense, as take, took, taken; but the participle does not express any tense of the verb different from the form of the indefinite past. We call both the present tense and the past indefinite, because they do not definitely determine the time of the action. What we have denominated the indefinite present. is no more nor less than the simple form of the verb, which expresses being, action, or passion without denoting any thing of time. It is a custom in this city, on the eve of It therefore applies to all times, without the new year, for the lower class of people designating any time. We shall not conto run about the streets, as soon as the clock tend for the correctness of the name here strikes twelve, with the most extravagant I have lately visited, with B, the applied to it; but we are confident in asdemonstrations of joy, wishing every one a Botanic Garden, which is situated between serting, that it is indefinite, and that the happy new year, shaking hands with all the Edinburgh and Leith. It is a very good common definition, which makes it denote men, and kissing all the females, which one, and the plants are well arranged. what is now passing, is quite incorrect. ceremony, every one, whether gentle or Even at this season, the holly-hedges, and This will be sufficiently proved by a very simple, is obliged to submit to, who happens many of the shrubs are quite green, and few examples. The sun rises and sets every to be abroad, even ladies in their carriages, some small plants, as the snow-drop and day in the year. He lives virtuously. When if the mob choose it; though, of course, no others, in flower. In the green-house were you retire from the labour and bustle of the female ventures out, without urgent neces- many curiosities, of which it is unnecessary day, think of One who is always mindful of sity, if she has any objection to the process. to give any particular account. A red-breast you. In these examples, and thousands of B and I sallied out about one, when had here taken up his abode, enjoying the others, it is obvious, that this form of the the uproar was at the highest; our hands genial temperature, and twittering and hop- verb has no particular reference to present were nearly shaken from our bodies, but, ping about with great glee, amid palms, aloes, time; and, generally, when the simple form fortunately, we were assailed by none but and bananas. We were much pleased at the of the verb is not marked by any peculiar those of our own sex, in which we had bet-sight of a large pitch-pine, such as those emphasis, it has no reference to time. When ter luck than H, a former comrade of that abound in the woods of Massachusetts, we place the simple form of the verb in opmine in the medical staff of that renowned standing alone in the garden; we recog-position to the past, it receives the peculiar body, the Massachusetts militia. One of nized him as a countryman, and felt proud emphasis to which we allude; but even in the fair sex seized him, and insisted upon to remark how majestic and noble he looked, these instances, the tense is more commonly his kissing her, which he was obliged to do, though far from his native soil. denoted by other words. as a refusal would have been not only ungallant, but somewhat dangerous. Among the phrases in frequent use in this city, none is more troublesome to us Yankees than the word "clever." It means here smartness and intelligence, while, with us, it may be, and indeed commonly is, applied to persons of moderate abilities. Here it is high praise, but at home, it is at best but a nugatory denomination, and an old acquaintance of mine used to assert, that his father was once prosecuted for slander, because he had called one of his neighbours a clever kind of a man. 66 I have several times mentioned the variable nature of Scottish weather. This is more remarkable, perhaps, in Edinburgh than elsewhere. The following are instances of this: A few days since, the morning, at eight o'clock, threatened a storm, or rather it was something between clear and stormy, and somewhat cold, with a high wind. Nine o'clock gave some intimation of fair weather; at ten the clouds began to break away, and the sun seemed on the point of appearing; at eleven, twelve, and one, it rained torrents, blew a hurricane, and was as dark as black clouds could make it; so that one could hardly see to read; at two it began again to be clear, and at three we had a lovely, mild afternoon, with bright sunshine, almost unclouded sky, and scarcely any wind; at half past three, rain again; at four, clear, with a prospect of a fine evening; at five, thick, dark, misty, and cloudy; at six, beautiful moonlight, with a few fleecy clouds; from seven to ten, cloudy and dark; at eleven, moonlight again, and clear; and half an hour after, as dismal a night as one would wish to witness. The other evening, being at B's, without an umbrella, I felt some alarm at hearing the rain pattering against the windows. I remained a short time longer, and the scene was changed to a fine moonlight evening. My walk home occupied about twenty minutes; before I distinct forms of English verbs, the indefiTHERE are only two tenses expressed by I hear little of home; D's engagement was the latest piece of information. This did not surprise me much; for, as old Burton saith, how should it be otherwise? The opportunity of time and place, with their circumstances, are so forcible motives, that it is unpossible almost for young folks, equal in years, to live together, and not be in love; especially where they are idle, in summo gradu, fare well, live at ease, and cannot tell otherwise how to spend their time." But, however this may be, I trust you will all, time and place fitting, follow so good an example, and, as old Edie says, "that I'll live to see it." Farewell. ON THE COMMON SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH In like manner, the past time does not define the time of the action, but merely denotes it to be past. When accompanied with auxiliaries, it is made to express the time of the action with any degree of precision that is required; these auxiliaries make no part of the verb, and they more frequently consist of what are termed adverbs and nouns, than of verbs. It is often necessary to use a great number of them, in order to mark the time with exactness; as, I dined at half past two on the twentysecond day of last February If we admit the use of auxiliaries in forming tenses, all the words in the above sentence are of this class, except the first two; and it might be that all the words in a volume, with the exception of one term, would be auxiliaries. They would not be auxiliary verbs, but they are used not the less to aid in forming and fixing the tense of the verb. If we admit tenses of sense as well as of form, we shall therefore have as many as there are different times expressed by combinations of words. We can imagine no reason for limiting the number to six or even six millions, if we exceed the two which are expressed by different forms of the verb. Why should we make the English language conform in this respect to the Latin, rather than to the Greek? We can express, with the aid of other parts of speech, and sometimes with than are given in the grammars of other the aid only of verbs, many more tenses languages; and why should we not give them as high a rank as the four mixed tenses which we now adopt? The Araucanian, a language more regular in its formation, and more copious than almost any other, has nine tenses formed by established variations of the verb.itself. We can translate all these into English, as easily as we can translate the Latin tenses; but this furnishes no reason for making nine English tenses, while our verbs cannot express them by regular variations of their form. All our grammarians contend that the first and great division of tenses is into present, past, and future; but they go on the false principle of making metaphysical tenses, or tenses of sense, instead of verbal tenses, or those formed by variations of the verb itself. If this general division be adopted, while auxiliaries are required to express the future tense, authority is certainly given for forming an infinite number of tenses as subdivisions. We are aware that we shall be considered as inordinately heretical in recting the future tense; but we will acknowledge our error, when it shall be shown, that English verbs have any form for denoting future time. The consideration, that the common division of time is into present, past, and future, has satisfied grammarians, that our verbs must mark this division; but they might with equal propriety have decided, that our verbs have 25567 tenses, because that is the number of days in a man's life, who lives three score and ten years. If we are to estimate the number of tenses by the number of imaginable periods of time in which an action may be done, how many shall we have? It is not necessary to add to these remarks on tenses, for every one is competent to apply the principle which we have stated, by rejecting from his system of parsing, all combinations of terms, whether they be of the same or of different names, and parsing every word by itself. If the scholar understand the meaning of his sentence, he will always know whether the time described or implied be present, past, or future, and will generally have occasion to mark it with even greater precision; but let him not be taxed with the vain effort to determine the time by the conjugation of the verb. The simple form of the verb or indefinite present, is to be distinguished from the declension or indefinite past; and the present and past participles are to be distinguished in the same manner. What is called the compound perfect participle, and all the compounded tenses and participles should be entirely rejected. In closing these remarks, we will anticipate one objection which will be felt by many teachers, even if they do not choose to express it. In order to parse in the manner we have recommended, every term must be well understood, and this will require a measure of knowledge rarely possessed. To cast several words into a group, and give them a name which will denote only the use which they serve collectively, is the constant resort of those who are too ignorant or too lazy to analyze the sentence and define the exact meaning and use of POETRY. TO TIME. O thou, whose awful wings unfurled Sweep on, sweep on! thine awful course Child of eternity! once more Secure from thee and all thy powers Throughout His boundless, endless reign; E-N. DIRGE OVER A NAMELESS GRAVE. By yon still river, where the wave Is winding slow at evening's close, The beech, upon a nameless grave, Its sadly-moving shadow throws. O'er the fair woods the sun looks down Upon the many-twinkling leaves, And twilight's mellow shades are brown, Where darkly the green turf upheaves. The river glides in silence there, And hardly waves the sapling tree : And months went sadly on,-and years :- Then came a gray old man, and knelt With bitter weeping by her tomb:And others mourned for him, who felt That he had sealed a daughter's doom. The fruitful fields again are blest, The jubilee of man is near, INTELLIGENCE. LORD BYRON. E- N. Since our previous notices of this nobleman, Mr Hobhouse has published a pamphlet in contradiction to many circumstances in Capt. Medwin's book, and in a "Narrative of Lord Byron's Voyage to Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, in 1821, in the Mazeppa." It is melancholy to observe how little faith can be put in any thing published to gratify public curiosity. Mr Shelley, who is reported to have been converted in a storm at sea, on board Lord Byron's yacht, “the Mazeppa," is proved never to have been at sea with Lord Byron in his life; Lord Byron never to have had a yacht called "the Mazeppa"-and, moreover, no yacht whatever at the time mentioned. Capt. Medwin makes Lord Byron say, "I have been concerned in many duels as second; but only two as principal; one was with Hobhouse, before I became intimate with him." Mr Hobhouse declares he never fought a duel with Lord Byron; and not only that, but that Lord Byron never fought a duel with any body. The above may serve as specimens of flat contradic tion. The story told by Lord Byron to Capt. Medwin, concerning the duel between Capt. Stackpoole and a Lieutenant, has also been publicly contradicted by some friend of the former, and its misstatements ex- we come to add to the list of London pa- quite applicable to the pu posed. pers, those which are printed in the coun- It is asserted that a thirty It is not an extreme calculation to state that there are, upon the eight morning papers, and the six evening papers published in London, at least one hundred and twenty literary gentlemen, receiving weekly salaries to the amount of 600%. exclusive of those who are paid for their communications. If to the daily papers we add about forty Sunday papers, and papers published twice or thrice during the week, we shall make a weekly sum total, for literary services upon the establishments, exclusive of what is paid for in another way, of about 1000l.; and if we add, to this amount, the sums paid by the whole of them, to printers, publishers, and others, in the way of regur lar salary, we shall have an increase of 1500l., making a weekly sum of 2500l., or 130,000l. per annum, paid by the London newspaper press, in salaries only; and to this we may add, at least 1,200. weekly, or 62,400l. per annum, for the remaining expenses, exclusive of stamps and paper, making altogether nearly 200,000 per annum. With respect to the number of persons employed upon the London newspapers, directly and indirectly, taking in editors, reporters, publishers, printers, pressmen, and others, deriving from them their subsistence, we are quite able to state it, at the very lowest, at fifteen hundred, many The biblical world is at present occupied of whom derive emoluments which enable in the investigation of a Hebrew roll of them to live as gentlemen, whilst none are great antiquity, found in a vessel captured without a handsome competence; for it is a by the Greeks, which roll has recently fact, that, in no employment are persons paid been brought to England. The enormous more liberally than upon newspapers. The sum of twelve hundred and fifty pounds has compositors have, upon morning papers, been asked for this relic; half that amonnt is said to have been offered for it by on beginning with the Seco published in a new form will spare no expense exertions to make the w tinuance of the generou TO CORRESPO JE is informed that Sisters" has not been receiv Has HENRY forgotten hi LIST OF NEW P By Cummings, Hillia Outlines of the Prin Triumphs of Liberty 1325. By Ebenezer Bailey recited by Mr Finn, at the anniversary of Washington Revised Testament. ment of our Lord and Sa which the Text of the Con tered, and some words not i into paragraphs, the punctu By T. P. & J. S.. American First Cla Pierpont, author of "Airs enth edition from a new set The Rational Guide |