irascible old gentleman, with gout in his temper as well as in his blood; or it is a duchess-dowager, chaste as an icicle in Diana's temple, but as cold who thinks it sinful to be merry in such a very wicked world as this-a Puritan of the nineteenth century awaiting burial, : "One that was a woman, sir; but, rest Her soul, she's dead."-Hamlet. 66 And though you may be "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy," with flashes of merriment that are wont to I set the table in a roar," yet "man pleases not these, nor woman either." Sydney Smith has hit off these unappreciative characters very happily in the following— "Nothing amuses me more than to observe the utter want of perception of a joke in some minds. Mrs. Jackson called the other day, and spoke of the oppressive heat of last week. Heat, ma'am!' I said; it was so dreadful here that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.' 'Take off your flesh and sit in your bones, sir? Oh, Mr. Smith, how could you do that?' she exclaimed, with the utmost gravity. Nothing more easy, ma'am; come and see next time! "Miss , too, the other day, walking round the grounds, exclaimed, 'Oh! why do you chain up that fine Newfoundland dog, Mr. Smith?' "Because it has a passion for breakfasting on parish boys.' "Parish boys!' she exclaimed; ་ does he really eat boys, Mr. Smith?' "Yes; he devours them, buttons and all!' To tell the truth, wit is so subtle an essence, a bird of such light wing, that it is not every one that can catch it flying. Moreover, it is not easy to bring down a butterfly with a bombshell; and hence the nature of wit has escaped hitting by many ponderous philosophers; thus the wieldy Burnet defined wit as "a talent very fit to be employed in the search for truth, and very capable of assisting to discern and embrace it." Would you venture to measure the impromptu of an Irish witticism, "racy of the soil," by such a ponderous standard? You might as well attempt to estimate the odour of a violet by cubic measure. If the definition be examined for a moment only, it will be seen that it does not sufficiently limit the subject of it, since not only wit, but reason, and to a greater degree, "is a talent very fit to be employed in the search for truth, and very capable of assisting to discern and embrace it; and there is not much wit, but a good deal of the reasoning process, required in mathematical, logical, and scientific search for truth. Again, the pedantic Dr. Young asserts that "the ambition of wit is to say most when least is to be said." But so far is this from being really the case that a far greater authority, and himself a wit, has assured us that " Brevity is the soul of wit;" and Voltaire, "All pleasantries ought to be short." Moreover, is there not one special class of witticisms the point of which depends upon their brevity? These are so short and to the point that they are all point. We refer of course to Laconisms. The people of Laconia, perhaps in antipathy to their rivals the oratorical Athenians, were taught to be sparing of their words, and to show their manliness by deeds; and this flavoured their very wit. "If I enter Greece, I will put all to the fire and sword," threatened the Persian general. "If!" replied tho Spartan general, Lysander. "Give up your arms!" haughtily demanded the herald of the mighty hosts of Persia, from the "Three Hundred " Spartans at the Pass of Thermopyla. "Come and take them!" replied the lion-hearted Leonidas. "The flight of our arrows will darken the sun at noonday!" boasted the same herald. "Then we will fight in the shade!" replied the undaunted one. But to proceed with the various conceptions of wit: Southey, who had no wit though he possessed much humour, affirms that there is but a "thin partition in the head between great wit and folly." This is almost the reverse of the fact, as is testified by the English language itself, which unconsciously betrays the close alliance between wit and wisdom, rather than between wit and folly. Thus to wit, to weet, wis, all mean to know-not to be ignorant or silly; as in Cor., "We do you to wit of the grace," &c., equivalent in modern phraseology to saying, "We make, or cause you to know," &c. So the AngloSaxon Witanagemote was the gemote or meeting of wise or witty men, not the Council of Fools. So a witch is equivalent to a wise woman, and a wizard is a cunning or knowing man; witting and unwitting are the same as knowing and ignorant; a man is out of his wits or witless, when he is out of his senses or senseless; the "five wits" being the avenues to knowledge. Doubtless to heighten contrast, great wits have often put on an affectation of folly, even as the "fool" of the middle ages donned the motley; but it "takes a wise man to make a fool" of this character. This is the art of Polonius, who swears he " uses no art at all;" in an artful manner pretending to be artless. It is true that the knowledge which lies at the bottom of all true wit is not necessarily the knowledge of books, but frequently that of men and things, gained by shrewd and intuitive insight into character, motive, surroundings, and the obscure relations of things; and so may come as pat from the mouth of an Irish peasant or Yankee pedlar as from the skull-pan of a philosopher. This reference by wit to the relations of things has been well discerned and expressed by Sydney Smith "The first limit to be affixed to that observation of relations which produces the feeling of wit is, that they must be relations which excite surprise, If you tell me that all men must die, I am very little struck by what you say, because it is not an assertion very remarkable for its novelty; but if you were to say that man was like a time-glass, that both must run out, and both render up their dust, -I should listen to you with more attention, because I should feel something like surprise at the sudden relation you had struck out between two such apparently dissimilar ideas as a man and a time-glass. (To be continued.) Reviews. JOHNSTON'S PUPIL TEACHERS' ATLAS AND GEOGRAPHY, 3rd YEAR.We have highly recommended the two preceding volumes of this series, and can speak in the same terms of the present book. It is beautifully got up, and will prove very useful to those for whom it is prepared. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, E. W. LEWIS: Moffatt & Paige. This is based on the Questions set at the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations. We have tested the accuracy of its information, and have been quite satisfied that it is equal to modern requirements, and up to the level of recent researches. 14 2. ++= 18 Intercommunications. 18+27+35 = 80 = 80, the number in the first 40+6= 46, and 80+46 126, which is the whole number. 3. (1) Number of yards cut off = In 2nd 3. (1) (2×21) = 42 Whole length of four pieces = 21 T. H. M. 2 pieces each containing 27 yards = 54 yards. 2 = : 42 Total 96+ remnants 104 = 200 Length of all. 2004 50 yds. Length of each. D. P. BETTS. 3. (2) Value of diamonds = £3411 9s. Value of casket = £1 1s. Value of casket to diamonds is as £1 1s. : £3411 9s., or as 1 : 3249 √3249 or 57 guineas = value of pearls. ..value of pearls = £59 17s. T. H. M. 3. (2) and take square root of the answer, thus To find the number of times divide £3411 9s. by £1 1s., £1 1s. x 57 £59 17s. Value of pearls. D. P. BETTS. D. P. Betts, 2. W. J. G. Lasseter, 2. T. H. M., 2. E. Davies, 2. Grimspeth, 2. R. Black, 2. T. John, 2, 3. A. Whitehouse, 2, 3. Alfred, 2, 3. Sapis, 2, 3. CYPRUS: Halfpenny Geography of. For Schools; with Map. 6D. PER DOZEN, post-free. Single Copies, 1d. post-free. H. MAJOR, Leicester; SCHOLASTIC TRADING COS.; and SIMPKIN & MARSHALL. Just issued. 160 pages. Price 18. Illustrated. THE POETICAL READING BOOK Being in great part made up of Romantic Historical Ballads AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, PRIZE POEM ON BURNS, ETC. Only a very small number of the pieces in this volume have already appeared in selections designed for Schools. It excels all books of the kind in originality, freshness, and adaptation to the tastes and capabilities of the young. Recently published, price 3s. 6d. post free. DEDUCTIONS, RIDERS AND EXERCISES BASED UPON Euclid, Books I. IV., and containing at end for Reference the TWO HUNDRED " DEDUCTIONS" worked out in full, from papers set in Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, London University Matriculation, Queen's Scholarship, &c. The clearest and most exhaustive work on "Deductions" ever published. Just published, price 18. 6d., post free. ALGEBRAIC FACTORS SIMPLIFIED BY A. L. SPARKES, B. A. (LOND.), F.C. S. The most important part of Algebra is thoroughly and clearly explained, and every P.T. and Scholar who is to succeed in the study of Mathematics would save himself much disappointment and drudgery by studying this work as soon as he has mastered the First Four Rules. SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT PAPERS IN MATHEMATICS WORKED OUT IN FULL AS MODELS. H. G. WHITE, Esq., Head Master of Royal Dockyard School, Sheerness, says"Mr. Knight gives just that kind of help which a student of Mathematics, especially if self-taught, so much needs. 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