LESSONS IN GERMAN. PAGE 51 XVII. Exercises: Murmur Gentle Lyre, Honest Fellow Sore Beset, Auld Lang Syne.... PAGE 40 114, 182 XLII. Certain Idioms and Phrases relating to time, &c. Melcombe, Edgware, Oberlin, Delabore, Saul, and Boyce's Chant ...... LESSONS IN PHONETIC SHORT-HAND. XLVII, XLVIII. List of Abbreviations; Vocabulary of 67 LESSONS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 81,99 XLIX PART II. Etymology: Derivation, &c; Parts of 108 L. Gender; Rules for finding the Gender, &c. ; Derivation of Nouns, Suffixes, &c...... 131 XX. The Orang-Outan..... 127 LI. Declension of Common Nouns; The Old and New XXI. The Chimpanzee, the Baboon 149 144 LII. Declension of Foreign and Proper Nouns 152 ...... 176 LIV. Mixed Declensions, Comparison of Adjectives 193 204 .212, 230 LVIII., LIX., LX. The Pronouns .245, 260 LXI. Verbs, Participles, Auxiliary Verbs.. LXII., LXIII. Paradigms of the Auxiliaries of the First LXIV. Conjugation of Verbs; Tense-Endings LXV. Paradigm of Verbs of the Old Conjugation LXVI. Alphabetical List of Verbs of the Old Form LXVII. List of Verbs, continued LESSONS IN GERMAN PRONUNCIATION; AND VOCABULARIES. I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., LESSONS IN GREEK. VII. Combinations; Abbreviated Logograms for Re- VIII. Illustrations of Logograms; Notation of Vowels; PHYSICAL EDUCATION. I. Definitions; History of Gymnastics II. Utility of Gymnastics; Elementary Exercises... ... V. Walking; Running; Leaping VI. Nouns and Adjectives of the Second Declension 93 112 ....... 129 146 154 172 191 200 214, 234 ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Government Stock, Solution of "Lean Horse" Query, the Cube of a Residual, &c., 28. Arithmetical Questions solved, Plants for a Bower, &c., 44. Solutions of Arithmetical Questions, 60. Prices of Globes, Solution of Query, &c., 76. On Eloquence, Exponentials, Ship Query, Solution of a Cubic Equation, &c., 120. Arithmetical Question, 148. Order of Mathematical Studies, Arithmetical, Algebraical, and Geometrical Queries, 164. Difference between the Aristotelian and Platonic Philosophy, Cause of the Tide, Prices of Electrical Machines and Batteries, 180. Analytical 58 Table of the Bible, 196. Mutual Instruction Societies, Meaning of 86 Baptizo, 256. Lines on Winter, Inland Book Post, 300. Answer to the Query on the Creation of Light, 316. Arithmetical Query, 344. Chemical Constituents of the Potato, 360. 269 MISCELLANEA. A Cry from our Prisons, 57. Poems by Blackman, 59. University of London, Nos. 111., IV., 119, 295, 323. The Missionary Settlement, 154. Short Short-Hand, 207. The Sabbath Morn, 20 239. The Olive Leaf, 355. On Civilization, 377. The Denudation of Rocks in Saxen Switzerland. In a former lesson, I intimated that the formation of valleys was a difficult problem in geology. It is evident that rivers, In general, have not excavated their own beds, but flow in valleys which have been formed, for the most part, by other agents. In the majority of instances, rivers are filling up, VOL. III. | produced in the strata of the earth's crust, either when tracting, or when suddenly elevated from the bed of the ocean. They are longitudinal, following the direction of the mountain chain; or they are transverse, running across that direction Their sides are generally rugged, mostly steep, and their edge 53 are crowned with lofty pinnacles. Ravines, gorges, and cleuchs, are bounded by more or less perpendicular walls of rock, and are due to the cutting power of running water, or to early rifts in the rock produced by some violent convulsion. Lowland valleys differ from both in being of a rounded form, as if a large body of water had passed over them, rounding their inequalities. Accurate soundings have demonstrated that hill and dale, mountain and valley, exist now in the ocean, and must have existed in the crust of the earth from the earliest geological periods. Over many of these inequalities, sedimentary rocks have deen deposited, which have filled up and covered their numerous hollows and fissures. In our early lessons on volcanic agency, your attention was directed to that violent disruption of strata, by which stratified beds have been in some instances contorted, and in others thrown up on their edges. It would depend on the force of the upheaving power, whether the beds of the earth's crust would be merely bent and curved, or whether large rents and fractures would be produced in them, which would be longitudinal and transverse fissures. If you suppose this disruption of the crust of the earth to take place beneath the waters of an ocean, the sea would be greatly agitated, and would react upon the rocks, rushing into the cracks, sweeping around them, rounding off their angles, and accumulating detritus at the bottom of hollows. Should the land which was in this process of being elevated or cracked, be partly in the ocean, and partly above the surface of the waves, the reaction of the sea would operate chiefly on the lower portion of the upraised strata, and the abrasion and the excavation would present a rounded or curvilinear form. Had the elevated rock been already in the atmosphere, the modification of the original cracks in the crust would be affected only by such atmospheric agents as rain, frost, and heat. scores of miles square, to have been, at an early epoch, vered with horizontal beds deposited by water, and that the present outline of the surface is like that represented in fig. 64. While looking at this figure, you cannot doubt that at one time the beds cdefg were as continuous as those of a b. If the section in this diagram were a brick wall, and if the series of beds were layers of different coloured bricks, and you found that, after some tremendous hurricane or earthquake, the wall presented the omissions and gaps that now appear, you would never infer that the wall had been originally built in this manner. You must apply the same method of reasoning to the aspect of these layers of rock. What, then, has become of all the materials marked by the dotted lines from A to B? They have all been worn away and removed by the denuding power of the ocean. Suppose the thickness of each bed to be 200 feet, and the distance from-A to B to be forty miles. Then, strata of 1,000 feet thick, and of many miles in extent, have been removed by denudation. Fig. 63. a B Horizontal Beds exposed by Denudation. Its appearance now presents a broken surface of a country, with a series of hills, cliffs, valleys, and mountains in the landscape-one of the mountains rising to a height of 1,400 feet above the level of the sea. Imagine, again, that instead of these beds being horizontal, they have been contorted by some powerful disturbing force Horizontal Bede, first cracked by Upheaval, and then laid bare from below, as is represented in fig. 65. by Denudation. Fig. 63 represents the upheaving power acting against the beds of the crust & B. Ate it has so swelled up the lower rocks as to produce at da crack, which was probably very small at first. On this the currents and waves began to act immediately, until they denuded all the beds down to the bed b. When the same subterranean force acted on the crust at f, it produced a fissure or a fault throughout the whole of the beds, and tilted a part of them on their edges. The rupture thus produced at a would be widened and deepened by the denuding agency of the ocean. When this district would be raised to the elevation of several hundred or thousand feet, and appear as high plateaus, they would present the appearance of a wild and desolate landscape of broken and shattered hills, separated by deep and gloomy ravines, that speak distinctly of a period of convulsion, when upheaving fires from the abyss, and ocean currents above, had contended in sublime antagonism-the subterranean power slowly elevating the entire district, and the ocean grinding down the rocks and sweeping them away. As the region of this crust first presented its broad back over the waves, the upper surface consisted exclusively, from one extremity to the other, of a continuous tract, say of old red sandstone, though, ere the land fully emerged, the ocean currents of ages had swept it away, all except in the lower and last-raised beds, and in the detached localities where it still remains in pyramidal hills, to show the amazing depth to which it had once overlaid the inferior rocks. To understand this, imagine a large district cf land several It is seen that, under the church at B, the beds are synclinal. We are sure that the beds of any are continuous under B, for show that they are now continuous downward, the question they all crop out at D and ɛ. As their dip and their outcrop arises whether they were once continuous and unbroken in the position of these beds at a and at C, together with the amount direction of the dotted lines between a and c The regular of their curvature, prove that they were once continuous and unbroken upwards as well as downwards. What, again, has become of all the materials of the rocks between ▲ and o? The whole masses marked by the dotted Synclinical means having the same inclination, or rather inclining together. lines have been removed by denudation. Sections in South Wales and Gloucestershire show that enormous beds of old red sandstone and mountain limestone, have been thus removed from the surface of the underlying rocks by the denuding action of sea currents. In mountainous countries, these denudations are sometimes marked by rocks many thousand feet in height, which are separated from each other by intervals or valleys many miles, and even leagues in breadth. Of this there is a grand specimen on the north-west coast of Ross-shire, in Scotland. Those three stupendous mountains, Suil Veinn, Coul Beg, and Coul More, which consist of nearly horizontal strata of red sandstone repose on gneiss, the fundamental rock of the country. It is not to be supposed that what are called valleys of denudation have been produced by the streams which flow through them now. In many parts of the world there are valleys without any water at all running in them. It is obvious that these valleys are not the result of river action. England abounds with examples of these dry valleys, especially in the combes of chalk districts, and in the numerous depressions found in the slate districts of Devonshire. Even in Jamaica, where heavy tropical rains are frequent, there are valleys in which the waters are immediately swallowed up by subterraneous cavities or sink-holes. On the west coast of Peru, where rain never falls, there are remarkable instances of dry valleys, which much resemble the lowland valleys of Europe. These dry valleys appear as if they had been scooped out by the materials which offered the least resistance. This denudation might have been effected by great disturbances beneath an ocean, such as would be caused either by the elevation of a long range of mountains from the sea, or by a disruption of the strata of which the crust of the earth in that region was composed. They were produced either by a marine earthquake, or they may have been formed beneath agitated waters, in which there were strong currents moving with great velocity. The rocks which were thus worn and denuded beneath such currents were afterwards protruded above the level of the sea, One of the most splendid generalisations in geological science is presented in the "Survey of Great Britain," by these currents are constant, some are periodical, and some The ocean abounds in currents strong and deep. Some of Professor Ramsey. He shows that the missing beds which have been washed away from the summits of the Mendip Hills, bodies of water, moving with different velocities, and in are only occasional. between Wells and Bristol, must have been originally about a mile in thickness. In considerable districts of Monmouthshire streams of different breadths and depths. Of the character of and Breconshire on the west, and Gloucestershire and Here-Stream of the Atlantic Ocean. High winds and heavy gales these currents we have a well-known specimen in the Gulf fordshire on the east, he shows that a series of ancient sedi- greatly affect the velocity and the strength of these currents mentary rocks, no less than eleven thousand feet in thickness sometimes diminishing their breadth and augmenting their have been stripped off by denudation. velocity, and vice versa. The principal causes of all ocean currents are supposed to be certain prevalent winds-such as the trade winds, the monsoons, &c. These red sandstone mountains consist of an immense suc-moving masses of water passing over them, and carrying off cession of thin layers, forming mere flags, with their surfaces distinctly ripple marked. They rise up at once, like pyramids, from the gneiss to the height of about 2000 feet, and to an average elevation of about 3000 feet above the level of the sea. It is impossible to look at these three high mountains, now rising in scattered and detached portions without inferring that, at one time, the whole country was covered with a great body of sandstone, and that enormous masses, from 1000 to more than 3000 feet in thickness, have been washed away by the denuding action of water. The stupendousness of this generalisation is in the two facts -that all these materials have been removed and transported to some other regions to compose rocks of a new formation; and that these paleozoic rocks are from twenty to thirty thousand feet thick. It is evident that whatever has been contributed to one area on the face of the globe, must have been derived and taken from another. One of the most magnificent, and, at the same time, most clear and palpable specimens of denudation, is furnished by Saxon Switzerland, a district of Germany about ten miles beyond Dresden. The rock of the district is what the German geologists call quadersandstein, corresponding to the green sand formation of England. The rocks on each side of the river Elbe are cut in all directions into chasms, gorges, and passages, as if mechanical tools had been used to hew them into particular shapes. Some of these passages among the rocks look like narrow lanes,-80 narrow are the openings and so smoothly perpendicular do the gigantic walls of rock rise on both sides, The walls of these rocks are cut vertically into separate masses by narrow passages, reaching from the summit to the very bottom, as if a cement that once united them had been washed away. The perpendicular masses of these separate rocks or cliffs are divided horizontally into distinct layers, like blocks regularly laid upon each other in a massive work of artificial masonry. The terminations or perpendicular extremities of these masses or columns are very rarely sharp or angular, but are almost invariably well rounded, which is a clear proof of subaqueous action. Some of them appear as if two sugarloaves were put together, the small end of one resting on the small end of the other. From what is called the Bastei (on the right of the engraving, 6g. 66), and 600 feet above the Elbe, the country looks as an amphitheatre, studded with lofty and rounded ranges of mountains. From the bosom of this amphitheatre, huge columnar hills start up at once from the ground, at a considerable distance from each other. All these are monuments of the denuding agency of water-not that of the present Elbe, but of the sea at a time when this part of Germany was slowly rising from the ocean. The identity of structure and of composition in all these columnar eminences prove that they once formed one body, and that all the softer parts of their beds bave been removed by denudation, These currents consist of immense Among the periodical currents of the ocean we must place the tides. These have great power in scooping shallow banks, and in abrading our coasts. The general velocity of the tide is about a mile and a-half in an hour. When any obstacles are presented to its currents, its abrading and transporting power becomes much augmented, and the process of denudation takes place very rapidly and extensively. It is often found that at greater or less distances from the shore, a great discoloration of the sea frequently takes place. This discoloration is produced by heavy gales and powerful hurricanes, and is due to the action of the sea on the rocks beneath, and not to the sands and mud which the ebbing tide brings with it. Since strong winds are generally the causes of currents in the ocean, it is obvious that the ocean streams thus produced will not extend deeper than the depth to which the propelling power of the wind or gale extends. All hydrographers have demonstrated that the waters of the ocean vary in density according to their depth. A wind, then, sufficient to agitate and propel the surface water to a certain depth beneath, will reach a point below at which it can produce no change or movement, as all water beneath that depth would, as far as surface causes are concerned, be immoveable, and would consequently exert no denuding agency, Hence, the denuding power of ocean currents depends on the depth of the sea. The smaller the depth, the greater is their denuding power, and consequently the greatest amount of denudation has, in every geological era, taken place on shoals and near coasts. Sea currents have always their greatest velocity and force in shallow water and in contracted channels. It is, therefore, in these situations that, among ancient rocks, we always discover the greatest effects of their denuding power. Their geological importance depends on two things: on the relative depth of the sea which they traverse, and on their proximity to land. By their shallowness, their velocity is increased; and by their nearness to coasts, they wear away and remove the rocks that resist them. At very great depths in the bed of the ocean we have no reason to suppose that this denuding power exists. If it does exist, its cause must differ from all surfa influences. LESSONS IN ENGLISH.-No. XLII. By JOHN R. BEARD, D.D. PART II-INFLEXION. NOUNS, THEIR ORIGIN AND CLASSES. I HAVE given my scholars such instruction on the component elements of the English language as the occasion permits. You now see of what materials your mother tongue consists. In their origin, those materials are very diverse :-the Celtic, the Teutonic, the Norman-French, the Latin, the Greek, the Romance tongues -such as the French, the Italian, the Spanish-besides others, have all contributed a portion. Did I possess an unlimited command of space, I would here have entered into historical details, showing at what precise point of time the several elements entered our language. Some general idea on this head you will already bave obtained; and for the present, at least, this must suffice. Our labours, then, have put us into possession of the constituent parts of the English tongue. These constituent parts we now possess in their simple and in their compound form, that is, we know whence our words come, and of what verbal combinations they are capable. But we do not yet know what changes these simple words, and these compound words undergo in themselves. Equally are we uninformed of the laws under which they combine together so as to form sentences and become the vehicle of thought. In other words, we have dealt with the Etymology of our tongue, and have now to treat of its inflexions and its Syntax. topeîa, from two Greek words, onoma (Latin, nomen), a name, and poièo, I make, so that the term literally signifies name-making, without any reference to the ground or principle of imitation on which such making proceeds. Instances of onomatopeîa exist in all languages. In English we speak of the buzz of the bee, the mew of the cat, the crash of falling timber, the crushing of a shell, &c. An English gentleman at a dinner table in China, was desirous, as he well might be, of knowing what was before him for his refreshment; but of Chinese he was ignorant. The dish on which his eyes were fixed had to him the appearance of hashed duck. Acting on this notion, he put to the servant interrogatively the words quack, quack? He was understood, and received for answer, bow, wow. After a similar manner, the nurse designates a cow as mistress moo, or a moo-cow; a lamb, she terms for her child's instruction, a baa, or a baa-lamb. Thus have arisen imitative terms which lead us to speak of the quacking of ducks, the cackling of geese, the roaring of the lion, the neighing or the whinnying of a horse, the bellowing of a bull, the mewing or purring of a cat, the croaking of frogs and ravens, the cawing of rooks, the chattering of magpies and monkeys, the barking, yelping, howling, growling, and snarling of dogs, the clucking of hens, the bleating of sheep and goats, the twittering of swallows, the chirping of crickets or sparrows, the grunting of pigs, and the gobbling of turkeys.. Here too may be placed the names of several inarticulate sounds uttered by the human organs, as laugh, cough (both originally pronounced with a strong gutteral sound, or sound in the throat), sob, sigh, moan, groan, scream, shriek, hiccough, yawn. snore, wheeze, sneeze, holloa, whoop. The last appears in hooping (whooping) cough. From imitation arise classes of words which severally express the same general sound under modifications, e. g., clap rap tap All the words of the English language have been brought into nine or ten classes. Arranging these classes according to their :mportance, I find them to be: 1, the noun; 2, the verb; 3, the adjective; 4, the pronoun; 5, the adverb; 6, the preposition; 7, the conjunction; 8, the article; 9, the participle; 10, the interjection. If, however, I follow a more natural order, it may be better to treat of these classes in the following succession :-1, the noun; 2, the article; 3, the adjective; 4, the pronoun; 5, the slap preposition; 6, the verb; 7, the participle; 8, the adverb; 9, whap the conjunction; 10, the interjection. By this means we get flap together under one head the noun, and what chiefly pertains to the pop noun; and under another head the verb, and what chiefly pertains to the verb, as is seen in this arrangement: Nominal Division. 1. NOUN, article, adjective, pronoun, preposition. 2. VERB, participle, adverb, conjunction, interjection. The reasons of this division are obvious; for, 1st, the article limits the noun; the adjective qualifies the noun; the pronoun takes the place of the noun; the preposition governs the noun: and, 2nd, the participle belongs to the verb; the adverb qualifies the verb; the conjunction governs the verb; the interjection is an abbreviated form of a proposition. Nouns or names are of a very high antiquity. In the noun probably is the root of language to be found. One of the earliest acts of human intelligence, must have been to give a name to some object of sight and desire. Accordingly we read in the Bible (Gen. ii. 20), that at the begining "Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." Food, of course, was man's first want; and a name for an edible object would be among man's first articulate sounds. That the noun preceded the verb is clear from the fact that men must have had a subject to speak of, before they could speak of a subject. In other terms, the subject was anterior to the predicate, for it is the business of the predicate to make some averment touching the subject. It is not easy to determine whether names of persons or names of things were first in order. If we reflect that food is more necessary to man than even companionship, we should be disposed to assign the precedence to names of things. But if, on the other hand, we bear in mind the fact that language implies companionship, and that words are called forth by the presence of another, then we find reason for thinking a personal designation, an appellative, or a word of address, took the lead of articulate sounds. Nouns originally were imitations; they were imitations of natural sounds. From the first breeze of wind and the first ripple of water, natural sounds existed and must have drawn attention. Those sounds were signs, and those signs would be the names of the things signified. Man's tendency to make names imitative of natural sounds, bears in learned phrase the designation of onoma snap In general, names were originally descriptive. The fact is specially illustrated in the Hebrew nouns, and the book of Genesis is full of instances. Thus Isaac means laughter, and Jesus means saviour. The names of rivers in other languages, when traced back to their originals, are found to be descriptive of the flow of the stream, according as it is swift, slow, quiet, noisy, &c. The name declares the qualities of the object; but, observe, there is no necessary connexion between the name and the qualities. Not always are names truly descriptive. With the progress of science even scientific names have ceased to be truly descriptive. But however correct a description of the qualities of an object its name may give, nevertheless it has no necessary connexion with the object itself. This fact is best illustrated by reference to the different names borne by the same object in different languages. Take the name God. In Hebrew, God is called Elohim and Jehovah; in Greek, Theos; in Latin, Deus; in French, Dieu; in English, God. You see there is no essential connexion between the Almighty and any one of these names. Yet the names are all descriptive. These names, and all names, are only sounds; or if you regard them as written rather than as spoken, then are they certain straight and curved strokes or lines representing sounds. By one sound is the Creator designated in Hebrew, by another sound he is designated in English. Hence you may learn that any sound may denote any object. The appropriation of sounds to particular objects is purely a matter of convention, or passive agreement. Take any familiar term, and you will see an exemplification. The term " Crystal Palace," pronounced by one pair of lips, speedily spread over the nation, and within a twelvemonth became a part of the English language. bination of sounds, as its designation, might have become recogAny other suitable comnised in the same way. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." If usage can originate nouns, usage can erect into nouns other parts of speech. Indeed, all the parts of speech may be regarded and used as nouns. You may know that a word not a noun is used as a noun, by its being constructed as a noun; that is, by its having connected with it such particles as nouns commonly take. Now, nouns take before them the articles, the and a; and they |