THE PATHWAY, a Monthly Religious Magazine, is published on the Ce que j'ai dépensé, je l'ai perdu; ce que je possédais, je l'ai 1st of every month, price twopence-32 pages enclosed in a neat laissé à d'autres: mais ce que j'ai donné est encore à moi.-wrapper. No. 82, for August, is now ready, and Vols. I. and II., Epitaphe. neatly bound in cloth and lettered, price 2s. 3d. each, may be obtained by order of any Bookseller.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

K. & He writes a legible hand: we recommend him to practise as much as possible.-MANLY. We shall have an article on German pronunciation in our next or the lowing Number, when, we trust, his difficulties will be removed. 1. 1ho wame of the vowel e is ey ey in prey; but on being pronounced, ise in met, bed, get, etc.; the same takes place in all languague, the names of the letters seldom agree with 2. It should be ae.bea prvamolason, eg. the English letter w. J.C. With It is sounded -J. H. BARKER (Islington): German nouns are distinguished by gender to a much greater extent than is the case with Bugosh nouns; the waggon, the hat, etc., are nouns of the masculine gender in German. We refer our correspondent to the vocabularies, in which the gender of nouns is indicated by being followed by an m, for u, respectively, the first standing for masculine, the second for feminwwe, and the last for neuter.—GUILLAUME'S (London): With diligence and carefulness, he may accomplish much in a short period; there is no objection to his studying the two languages together. Respecting pronunciation, we refer him to "Stanley." Flügel's Dictionary is the best.-JUVENIS (Leeds): "Becker" is a good book, and well adapted for his purpose; though Schiller's historical works may be more justly pointed out as models of elegance. ADMIRATOR wishes to know whether the human body changes every seven years. Physiology deals with facts and not with theories. It is a fact that there is a constant waste, and as constant a reparation of all the tissues of the body, but whether every individual particle has been renewed within the space of seven years, is more than we can venture to affirm.-JULIANA QUICK will find that a PACE measures five feet; and a stadium, as used in the third lesson, is equal to one hundred and twenty-five paces, or six hundred and twenty-five feet. Suppose a young lady had to go this latter distance to see her lover, how many miles would she have to walk?-E. D. (Tynemouth): The questions which he suggests as to the origin and early progress of Architecture, are the very points in which the most learned men are divided. The origin has been claimed by Egypt, India, and Persia. And if the primitive history of Meroë was involved in less obscurity, the question might be brought within the range of an easier solution.

ISAAC WALTON,,jun. (Birmingham): Dialling will be treated of. THAUMASTES (London): The philosopher of San Souci was Frederic of Prussia, and Voltaire was the author of the "Philosophical Dictionary." you will soon observe that it is his by the sneers he throws out against revelation. The cloven foot soon appears. The king and the wit were a dread

gow) will get Dr. Beard's "Latin Made Easy," by applying to Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall, London. A list of errata will be given with the volume.

RICHARD RIGBY (Brades) wishes us to tell him more about our proceedings than we know ourselves. Now, curiosity is very praiseworthy when properly directed. What we have said in former numbers of th s work, we are making every effort to fulfil. Let this be enough. The law of gravitation holds good in respect to all bodies. Two bodies of very unequal weight let fall from a high tower, would reach the ground in the same time. This is nicely illustrated by the Guinea and Feather experiment. In the exhausted receiver of an air-pump they both fall to the bottom of the receiver at one and the same instant.-WILLIAM SIMPSON (Yorkshire) may acquire a pretty good knowledge of French in three months.-UN JEUNE MONTAGNARD (Glasgow): We advise him to remain in his present employ, to try to improve his handwriting, and do everything to please his employers. His reward will come sooner or later. Perseverantia vincit omnia.-J. Ó. N. (Liverpool) has been received and, will be attended to with pleasure.-The CLASS OF WORKING YOUTHS (Leicester), which wrote to us by the hands of the chairman, is advised to get a book on ETIQUETTE, written by Aywyos; it is published by Longmans, Paternoster-row; we believe the price is 18.-H. M. F. (Cheltenham): His solution of query 3, p. 223, is wrong; those of queries 3 and 4, are right.-R. S. (Piccadilly): Proceed with Geometry, by all means. Get Cassell's Shilling Euclid.-JOHN WRIGHT (Astley): The solutions will be given.-J. C. G. M. (Walworth): His solution of query 3, p. 223, is wrong.-HORATIO BLYTH (Norwich): His first essay at composition is passable. Heralded is not a good word to use in speaking of the beginning of time. The Almighty is the best word to use for God, when speaking of creation. He was indeed ALL-MIGHTY, and the Hebrew word is best rendered by this English word, or the Latin term Omnipotent.-ISLINGTONIAN, if he wishes to be a man, should set his face against theatricals and novels. History and biography are good. Let him study Latin and English well, and stick to Blackstone. C. BOLDERO (Shrewsbury): He has now got the Latin key; let him go on and prosper; fortune favours the brave.-A WORKING MAN (Aberdeenshire): Received.-W. S. G-N: His solution of query 3, p. 223, is wrong; those of queries 4, 5, and 6, are right.-DAVID CRAWFORD (Largs), has also sent right solutions of these three.DAWSON (Knaresborough): His solutions of queries 1 and 3 are incorrect; of queries 2 and 4, right.-JOHN DENNIS (Droylsden): We are pleased with his communication, and shall take his hints in good part. We shall be down on Naper's bones soon, and the circle too.-OPIFEX:

ful pair! To multiply 1+x+x2+, by 1-x, observe that the deno-We shall make some use of his interesting communication.

V. A. (Richmond): His solution of the cup question is right.-A. T. minator of the fraction in the multiplicand is the same as the multiplier; (Coventry) should consult the Key to the Latin Lessons in the POPULAR now if you multiply a fraction by a quantity which is the same as its EDUCATOR.—A LAD who works in a factory should consult the Reguladenominator, the product is the numerator; therefore you have only to tions for Degrees in the London University Almanack; any college conmultiply 1+x+2 by 1-x, and to the product add the numerator of nected with that university is open to him.-JAMES HALE will find all the fraction; this will give the result 1.-J. M. H.: The British Colonies that is required for the German in the POPULAR EDUCATOR.-J. D. will come in their order in the geography, and being of so much import- (Torpoint): Professor Liebig, of Giessen, is reckoned the most famous ance to this country, and especially to our surplus population, shall re- Chemist of the day; but he is a German.-NIL DESPERANDUM (Bristol): ceive our best attention.-A. B. (Rochdale): We entirely sympathise An is used as well as ne, but the distinction will be pointed out in the with him on the subject of the hedgehog and the toad; the charges lessons.-A LABOURER (St. Osyth) will find the answer in the Key to made against them are vulgar errors. We shall call the attention of the Latin Lessons.-W. S. WAKEFIELD (Waltham Abbey): We fear our natural historian to the subject.-RICHD. JACKSON (Manchester): his benevolent plan would not succeed.-MECENAS (London) wishes a If the sentence quoted had been wrong, through inadvertence or any solution to the following:-If two circles touch each other externally, other cause, we should have thanked him, and acknowledged our error; and parallel diameters be drawn; the straight lines joining opposite but we are right.-A. M. WHITE (City): We rather think that the extremities of the diameter shall pass through the point of contact. See query about the nine rows of nine digits, is insoluble to the full extent "Bland's Geometrical Problems," sect. 2, No. 85.-F. W. M. (London) of the requirement; but we shall not be too positive. Poetry, good should study Geometry, beginning with the lectures on Euclid.-R. M. poetry, shall find a place with us; but our standard is very high. We (Aberdeen) will obtain all he wants in succeeding lessons.-R. W. thank him for his philanthropic intentions regarding the POPULAR (Brighton): Both.-R. BOWEN (Hayes): His suggestions are received. EDUCATOR.-LYCO (Wortley): We prefer Young's Algebra to Cham-H. H. (Farnham): England allowed an institution for the training of bers's, and Riddle's Latin Dictionary to any he has mentioned; civil engineers to die. There is now no remedy but apprenticeship.thanks for his recommendation.-J. B. (St. NEOTS): We recommend I. H. (Tyldesley): As the lines of small angles are nearly proportional Cassell's" History of the Steam-Engine," price 7d. as the plainest we to the angles themselves, you will find the sine of 865 by multiplying know.-S. B. (Bridlington): Read both lessons together.-R. C. A. the sine of 1' by 8-65 and dividing by 60 -DEXTER (York) will find a (Gourock):Our worthy friend at the "Saut Watter," asks too many ques- geometrical solution to the following question, in Dr. Thomson's Euclid, tions at once; we cannot cool our "kutes," and take matters as easily as prop. 26, book 3 of the appendix. ne does. To rise early get an alarm-clock, or get a friend to put a wet sponge to your nose. The sentences "Alfred rides a horse," and "* If it rains to-morrow," are both grammatical. A tank 12 feet deep, 41 feet long, and 9 feet broad, contains 4,428 cubic, or solid feet, for 12×41X9 4428. Now multiply 4428 by 1728 the number of solid inches in a solid foot, and divide by 277.274 the number of solid inches in an imperial gallon, and you have the content of the tank in gallons; the answer will be about 27,575 gallons.

T. B. S. (Leeds): Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite, Newgate-street, London, have published a cheap Manual of Photography.- J. P. (Norwich) shall be gratified by the mysteries of the number 9.-W. S. should of course improve his penmanship; but bad writing is not the reason of his getting no reply to letters in answer to advertisements.-SELAW: His suggestions as to mechanical arts are followed up to a considerable extent in the "Illustrated Exhibitor."-AMINTUs (Glas

"A gentleman a garden had,

Five score feet long, and four score broad;
A walk of equal width all round,
He made, that took up half the ground;
Ye skilful in Geometry,

Tell us how wide the walk must be."

Construct the rectangle according to its dimensions, draw the diagonal, and find the centre of the circle inscribed in the triangle. Parallels to the sides drawn through this point will divide the rectangle as required.-A. E. should walk and converse with a friend, as often as he can; one wiser and older than himself.

Printed and Published by JOHN CASSELL, La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgatehill, London.-August 7, 1852.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

THE new information gained by the old world, through the discovery of America and the voyage of Vasco de Gama, required a long period for its proper regulation and systematic arrangement. The ignorance which still prevailed among the ablest navigators and geographers, at the end of the fifteenth century, was such that, when Christopher Columbus, in his third voyage, discovered continental America, the violence of the billows, and the agitation of the sea at the mouth of the Orinoco, led him to believe that he was in the highest part of the globe, and consequently, in the regions of paradise! But the discovery of the new world revived and reinvigorated the desire for voyages to the north, and set them on a better footing. It appears, indeed, that previous to his grand discovery, Columbus had himself performed a voyage in the northern seas, and had even visited Iceland. This voyage,

WESTERN HEMISPHERE

appearance of Franklin in Europe from the East, of what use would such a frightful and dangerous passage be to the mercantile interests of the world? Surely it would still be better to pursue the ordinary route to India, either by sea or land, than to run the danger and risk of losing ships, property, and men, by sailing through floating mountains of ice, unknown rocks, and uninhabited and inhospitable coasts.

The voyage of Willoughby in 1553, although it ended in sad shipwreck on the eastern coast of Lapland, added to geographical knowledge, by the discovery of Nova Zembla. Frobisher, under Queen Elizabeth, was more fortunate; his three voyages, performed between 1576 and 1578, ended in some discoveries, among which were the straits which bear his name, situated between Hudson's Straits and Cumberland Straits. John Davis, in the same reign, in his exploratory

EASTERN HEMISPHERE

MAP OF THE WORLD.

according to a note of the event found in his own handwriting, voyages performed in 1585, 1586, and 1587, threw a clearer took place in 1467.

John and Sebastian Cabot, who were employed in the expedition by Henry VII. of England, discovered the island of Newfoundland, and sailed along a considerable extent of the coast of North America. France, desirous of having her share of the spoil, fitted out an expedition under J. Cartier, who sailed from Dieppe in 1534; discovered Canada, and took possession of it in the name of his government. The grand object of these voyages in the northern seas, was the discovery of a north-west passage to India. The infatuated question of a communication between the two great oceans at the north, occupied the minds of geographers and navigators at that period, as much as it has done in the present day. How singular that this infatuation still occupies the public mind! Even on the supposition that such a passage really existed, and had been actually discovered, and put in evidence by the re

VOL. I.

light on the geography of the circumpolar regions of the north. In 1596 the Dutch discovered Spitzbergen; and eleven years afterwards it was rediscovered by Hudson, who performed four voyages, from 1607 to 1611, in order to find the passage to India either across the pole itself or to the northwest. In the fourth, he discovered the bay which bears his name. In the following year Thomas Button, penetrating into this northern Mediterranean, reached the mouth of the river Nelson. William Baffin enjoyed still greater success. In his second exploratory voyage, in 1616, he successively discovered and gave name to the following places in the arctic regions :-Cape Dudley Digges, in latitude 76° 35' N.; the bay of Wolstenholme; the bay of Whales, in latitude 77° 30 N.; the island of Hackluyt; the bay of Sir Thomas Smith, in latitude 78° N.; also the Carey Islands, the bay of Alderman Jones, and Lancaster Sound. In this expedition, he explored 20

the bay which has immortalised his name, and determined the as to the realities of our colonial possessions. Even gold itself geographical position of a great number of points. may become a drug; and how sad that state of society would During the sixteenth century, while discoveries were multi-be, when this most precious of metals, having made all equally plied and expeditions became fruitful and productive, geo- rich, would fail to purchase that human labour, from which graphical science still remained in its infantile state, and as our comforts flow! yet received little advantage from their progress. Light was breaking in upon all sides, but this science was immersed in darkness. A glance at the fantastical maps which preceded the glorious era of the Reformation, will show how profound was the ignorance of the geographers of that period. In our last lesson, a specimen of one of these maps was given in the fac-simile of the map of Africa belonging to the pilot of Christopher Columbus. In such maps of the world, the principal cities are denoted by little houses or churches roughly sketched; Jerusalem occupies the centre of the globe; paradise is surrounded with its impenetrable enclosure of verdant foliage; and the geographical illustrations are the most whimsical that can be imagined. The winds are represented by fabulous divinities, as sitting all round the world upon leathern bottles, whose sides they are pressing to force out the air; Western Africa is made to terminate at Cape Nun, then at Cape Bojador; the celebrated statue of the Canaries is seen flourishing his club at the top of a high tower; the coasts of the adjacent continent are lengthened in proportion to the discoveries of the Portuguese; Abyssinia figures with its Prester John, having on his head a brilliant mitre; the other kingdoms of Africa are denoted by their kings in costumes, enriched with gold and silver embroidery; this continent so long unknown, is represented as peopled with strange animals and black men; there are groups of giraffes and elephants; Portuguese camps are indicated by coloured tents; and light cavalry, splendidly caparisoned, are making the tour of this mysterious continent. In short, these specimens of chartographical art, are the faithful expression of the science of the middle ages. The pilot's map, already alluded to, will furnish the reader with examples of the pre-first landed on the Solomon Isles, the isle of Santa Cruz, and ceding details. Behold the contrast in the map of the world which accompanies this lesson! We have inserted his map thus early in our progress, that it may be useful for reference; it will be fully described in a future lesson.

The period preceding the Reformation, was the era of legendary and popular tales, and geography had its fabulous age as well as its antiquity; only the fantastic notions of the middle ages were less marked by ingenuity and variety. Prester John has been mentioned. This was one of their most widely-spread myths. The name of this personage first appeared about the middle of the twelfth century. It was the general and popular belief that there existed a pontifical prince called John, who governed vast countries situated beyond Armenia and Persia, It was asserted that he professed that form of Christianity called Nestorianism. Ere long he was transported to Abyssinia, where he ruled during three or four centuries! He was as rich as he was powerful, and as formidable to his enemies, as he was dear to his subjects. In Asia or in Africa, there was always a formidable monarch, dwelling in a world of prodigies, over which he reigned as omnipotent master!

The vain tradition of El Dorado was no less believed at the period under review. This fiction, which travelled to America under the name which has given celebrity to it, in the first half of the sixteenth century, was applied to a country, that previously existed only in the imagination of the inhabitants of Europe. Although its true name is lost, it was at last placed in the new world, in the country of Santa Fé, in those regions of South America watered by the mighty streams of the Amazon, and which were scarcely known to Europeans, El Dorado, this name sufficiently indicates the nature of the imaginary country to which it was applied. It was the country of riches; there, were to be seen cities glittering with gold; there, so common was this metal, that it was used even in the most common household utensils. How unfortunate for ages, were the adventures in search of this golden dream! How many victims have been deceived by this dangerous tradition! Is this El Dorado to be at last realised in our own day? Are California and Australia to give actual existence to the fables of the middle ages? Modern appliances are great; chemistry and geology have done wonders; and human industry has encountered what at the beginning of the present century were deemed impossibilities. But let us not be too sanguine now,

There has been also the fable of the kingdom of Paititi, a sort of counterpart of El Dorado, another garden of the Hesperides, where inexhaustible treasures awaited the happy. mortal sufficiently well instructed to follow the track. This kingdom or empire was supposed to be situated in the fertile plains of the Maranon, and to have been founded by the Incas of Peru, whose descendants knew how to conceal them from the view of the Spaniards by powerful enchantments! By degrees this myth was embellished with a thousand wonders, and the Catholic missionaries themselves contributed not a little to propagate the conviction that this imaginary kingdom was a reality. This state of things continued even in the second half of the seventeenth century. The close of the middle ages, therefore, had its mythical or fabulous geography, notwithstanding the real and ultimate progress made by the voyages of discovery. True science had not yet made its appearance. The fifteenth century having closed with the two greatest geographical events of modern times, the discovery of the New World, and the periplus of the African continent, the sixteenth century beheld the extension and success of European enterprise in distant seas. The Pacific Ocean, which Magellan had opened up to the fleets of Christendom, were navigated and explored by daring mariners. Soarez discovered the Maldive Islands; another Portuguese, the Moluccas or Spice Islands; Villalobos, a group now supposed to make part of the Philippine Islands; Juan Fernandez, the small island that bears his name, and celebrated as the foundation of the history of Robinson Crusoe. To the latter, also, has been ascribed the discovery of New Zealand. In 1567 Alvaro de Mendana others. Nearly thirty years later, the same navigator discovered the Marquesas, and the Archipelago, which was afterwards called by Carteret Queen Charlotte's Islands. Francis Drake; the Dutchman Van Noort; Quiros, who discovered Tahiti, and the Archipelago of the New Hebrides (the Great Cyclades of Bougainville); Torres, who discovered New Guinea, and the strait which separates this large island from Australia,-all began to clear up the navigation of the Pacific or South Sea. In the interval, Sebald de Weert, fellow-navigator with Van Noort, had recognised the Maloumes or Falkland Islands, discovered by John Davis. Two of his countrymen, Lemaire and Schouten, discovered in 1615, part of the island of Terra del Fuego, and Cape Horn, which forms the southern extremity of the American continent. A new passage was thenceforward open to navigators bound for the Pacific Ocean, who were desirous of avoiding the difficulties and storms which were to be dreaded in the straits of Magellan. honour of having first landed on New Holland (Australia) is generally attributed to Dirk Hartog, who attached to the part of this continent, which he had discovered, the name of the vessel he commanded, by calling it Endracht's land; Zeachen, in 1618; Edels, in 1619; De Nuyts, in 1627; and after these De Witt, Carpenter, and Pelsart completed this grand discovery.

The

It is not positively known whether the Spanish and the Portuguese had not visited the coasts of Australia nearly a century before the Dutch, as two chartographical documents of that date would lead us to believe. Neither is it more certain that the Portuguese Menezes and the Spaniard Saavedra had discovered New Guinea, the one in 1527, and the other in the following year. The memorable voyage of Abel Tasman produced rapid and striking progress in the geography of Oceanica, or Australasia and Polynesia. This able navigator, sailing from Batavia in 1642, discovered Van Diemen's Land, otherwise called after him Tasmania, The periplus of Australia was then completed, and the assurance was gained that this continent did not extend indefinitely towards the south pole. Shortly after, the expedition landed on New Zealand; then it discovered the Friendly Islands, and that of Tongataboo. Lastly, after a successful expedition of nine months, at the end of which it visited New Guinea, and discovered several islands to the north of it and of the island of New Britain, the Dutch refitted their vessels in the port of

Batavia, the capital of Java. It was only in 1665 that the name of Nova Hollandia, or New Holland, was given to the western part of Australia by a decree of the States-General of the parent country.

In 1700 Dampier, at this time celebrated for his buccaneer (piratical) expeditions, discovered some new islands to the north of New Guinea, and Papuasia, that is, small islands contiguous to New Guinea, which was also called Papua. Wood Rogers sailed sound the world in three years and three months, and encouraged by his successful expedition, the maritime powers proceeded to attempt similar enterprises, hitherto considered as extremely dangerous. Towards the end of the preceding century, France had also made expeditions into the Southern Ocean. Her first vessel which appeared in the Pacific Ocean, was commanded by one Lafeuillade; but the voyage, which took place in 1667, produced no new discovery. The discoveries of the Russians in the north of Asia must be noticed. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, they knew nothing of the coasts of Siberia beyond the Yenisei. War and conquests laid open to the emperors the way to this immense region. In the space of less than a century, the whole of northern Asia, from the frontiers of China to the Frozen Ocean, was reduced under the crown of Russia. Geography was benefited by this annexation, which gave to the Russians new facilities for performing useful explorations in these inhospitable countries. In 1728 Behring alone made the important discovery of the strait which separates Asia from America, and rendered the peopling of the new world no longer a question of difficulty or doubt.

The northern circumpolar regions had not been the theatre of any important expedition, from that of Baffin, above mentioned, until the middle of the eighteenth century. The era of scientific expeditions was now begun. Geography, so long retarded in her progress to perfection, proceeded with a a sure and rapid step. This was the most brilliant period of the history of navigation from the time of the great discoveries of the sixteenth century. It was particularly remarkable for the positive character of its results. Bougainville, who had gained renown in the wars of Canada, anticipated that which he gained as a navigator, by an expedition to the Malouine or Falkland islands where he went to found a French colony in 1764. The circumnavigation of the world by commodore Byron, also begun in the same year, produced very important results; and so did the voyages of Wallis and Carteret, in clearing up some practical questions relating to the geography of Oceanica. Carteret, in particular, determined the geographical positions (that is, the latitudes and longitudes) of several islands in the direction of New Britain; his vessel having been the first Euglish man-of-war which had touched at the island of Celebes. Three years after his first voyage, in 1767, Bougainville undertook his grand expedition to circumnavigate the globe. After a short stay in the river La Piata, he was detained in the straits of Magellan no less than a period of fifty-two days. He then entered the South Sea, and discovered the islands of Pomotou, which he called the Dangerous Archipelago. He then entered the chief port of Tahiti; his transactions with the inhabitants of New Cythera were not only pacific but amicable. He next visited the Navigator's island, or Samoa, touched at Papua or New Guinea, discovered to the east of it an archipelago which he called Louisiade, several of the Admiralty Isles, and another called by his own name near Solomon Isles. In the same direction he discovered several other islands of less importance, which had been seen by other navigators; and having visited New Ireland, discovered by Carteret, he arrived at Batavia; whence, he sailed to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope. This expedition was well received in France and in Europe; it had made several important discoveries, and had been marked with interesting episodes which were related with spirit and talent; and created a still greater desire for circumnavigating expeditions.

QUESTIONS ON THE PRECEDING LESSON.

Who discovered America? Had this discovery any immediate effect on geographical science? What was the object of the voyages What discoveries to the northern regions in the 17th century? What did Frobisher, Davis, and Baffin make at this period? appearance did the maps of the world then present? Who was

What was the nature of the fiction of El Dorado? Prester John? and of that of Païtiti? Name some of the discoverers in Australasia and Polynesia. What English names occur at this period as discoverers? What French names? Who first set foot on Australia ? What was it at first called? Who sailed round Who gave it the name of New Holland? Who discovered Van the world at the beginning of the 18th century? Who discovered the narrow straits between Asia and America? What difficult Who was Bougainville ? and question did this discovery solve? what discoveries did he make?

Diemen's Land?

LESSONS IN FRENCH.-No. XIX.
By Professor LOUIS FASQUELLE, LL.D.
SECTION XL.

THE PAST INDEFINITE. [§ 121.]

1. THE past indefinite is composed of the present of the in. dicative of one of the auxiliary verbs, avoir and être [§45 (8)], and the participle past of a verb. See the different paradigms of verbs, § 47 and following sections.

J'ai parlé, je suis arrivé.

I have spoken, I have arrived.

2. The past indefinite is used to express an action entirely completed, but performed at a time of which a part is not yet elapsed, or at a time entirely past, but not specified. [§ 121 (1) (2)]:

J'ai vu votre père ce matin.
Je ne vous ai pas encore parlé.
The past indefinite may also
fied [§ 121 (3)] :—

Je lui ai écrit la semaine dernière.
Je lui ai envoyé une lettre le mois
dernier.

I have seen your father this morning. I have not yet spoken to you. be used, when the time is speci

I wrote to him last week.
I sent him a letter yesterday.

4. In this tense and in other compound tenses, the adverb is generally placed between the auxiliary verb and the participle [§ 136 (3)] :

:

Vous nous avez souvent parlé.
Je ne l'ai pas encore vu.

You have often spoken to us.
I have not yet seen him

5. The adverbs aujourd'hui, to-day; demain, to-morrow; hier, yesterday; polysyllabic adverbs of manner ending in ment, and long adverbs generally, do not come between the auxiliary verb and the participle, but follow Rule 1. Sect. 33. See § 136 (5):

Vous avez lu dernièrement.

You read lately.

6. The unipersonal verb y avoir [Sect. 32, R. 3, 4], placed before a word expressing time, corresponds with the English word, ago :— I received a letter eight days ago. You bought a house a year ago.

J'ai reçu une lettre, il y a huit jours.
Vous avez acheté une maison, il y a

un an.

RESUME OF EXAMPLES.

Vos neveux nous ont parlé.
Nous avons parlé à votre père.

Le tailleur a-t-il fait mon habit?
Le boulanger a mis son chapeau.
Le cordonnier a ôté ses souliers.

Votre frère a dit quelque chose.
Votre sœur qu'a-t-elle dit?
N'avez vous rien dit à mon cousin?
Je ne lui ai rien dit.

Je ne l'ai jamais rencontré.
Je ne leur ai jamais parlé,
Qu'avez vous fait aujourd'hui ?
Hier, nous n'avons pas travaillé.
Leur en avez vous souvent parlé ?
Je leur en ai souvent parlé.
Je ne le leur ai pas encore dit.
N'avez vous pas assez écrit ?
Il m'a écrit, il y a longtemps.
Il nous a répondu il y a un mois.