4. They entered the capital of America only to abandon it, and these assertors and representatives of the dignity of England, in the rear of a flying army, let fly their Parthian shafts of memorials and remonstrances at random behind them. Their promises and their offers, their flatteries and their menaces, were all despised, and we were saved the disgrace of their formal reception only because the American Congress scorned to receive them, whilst the State-house of independent Philadelphia opened her doors to the public entry of the ambassador of France!

5. From war and blood we went to submission, and from submission we plunged back again into war and blood, to desolate and be desolated, without measure, hope or end! I am a royalist-I blushed for this degradation of the Crown. I am a Whig-I blushed for the dishonor of Parliament. I am a true Englishman-I felt to the quick for the disgrace of England. I am a man-I felt for the melancholy reverse of human affairs in the fall of the first power in the world.

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BURKE.

SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Address: F. adresser; fr. the L. ad, to, and directus; h., adroit: v. DIRECT. Commission: L. commis'sio; fr. commit'to; fr. com con, together, and mit'to, mis'sum, to send; h., ad-mit, committee, com-pro-mise, de-mise (lit., a down-sending; h., death), dis-miss, e-missary, e-mit, inter-mit, intro-mit (intro, within), manu-mit (to release from one's power, to liberate; fr. man'us, hand), missile, mission, o-mit (o =ob, from), per-mit, pre-mise, preter-mit (to let go by), pro-mise (lit., to let go forward; h., to cause to expect), re-miss (lit., sent back), re-mit, sub-mit, trans-mit, etc. . . . Congress: L. congres'sus; fr. congred'i-or, congres'sus, to go or come together; fr. con and grad'ior, gres'sus, to step; h., ag-gress, de-grade, de-gree, di-gress, e-gress, grade, gradual, in-gredient (entering into), in-gress, prò-gress, retro-grade, transgress, etc. . . . Deluge: L. dilu'vium; fr. di'luo, dilu'tum, to wash to pieces; fr. di=dis, apart, lu'o, I wash; h., ab-luent, ab-lution, al-luvial (al=ad, to; h., added to land by wash of water), di-luent, di-lute, di-luvial, etc. . . . Fail: L. fal'lo, fal'sum, to deceive; h., failure, fallible, fallacious, false, in-fallible, etc. . . . Frenzy: Gr. phrène'sis, a disease of the mind; fr. phrēn (øpŋv), mind. General: L. generalis: v. ENGINE. Office: L. offi'cium, that which one does for another; fr. ob, for, fă'cio, I do.... Parthian: fr. Parthia, a country near the Caspian Sea, the people anciently famous as horse-archers, and for shooting their arrows backward upon the enemy. . . . Remonstrate: fr, the L. re and monʼstro, monstra'tum, to show; h., monster, muster (to collect for show), de-monstrate, etc. . . . Supplicate: L. sup'plico, supplica'tum, to kneel down; fr. sup'plex, sup'plicis, bending the knees; fr. sub, under,

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pli'co, pli'catum, to fold; h., ac-com-plice ap-plication, ap-ply (lit., to fold to), com-plex, com-plexion (the state of being complex; h., texture, hue of the skin, etc.), com-plicate (folded together), com-ply (to fold with; h., to conform), display (to unfold), double, du-plex (duo, two), du-plicate, duplicity, em-ploy, ex-plicate, ex-plicit (out-folded, plain), im-ply (to in-fold), im-plicate, im-plicit, in-ex-plicable, multi-ply (to make many-fold, mulius, many), per-plex, pliable, pliant, ply, re-ply, simple (L. sim'plex, sim'plicis ; si'ne, without, pli'ca, a fold), sup-pliant, etc.... Vagrant: L. vag'us, strolling about; h., extra-vagant, vagabond, vagary, vague.

XLIV. MY EXPERIENCE WITH PLUMBERS. 1. SPEAKING of the philosophical temper, there is no class of men whose society is more to be desired for this quality than that of plumbers. They are the most agreeable men I know, and the boys in the business begin to be agreeable very early. I suspect the secret of it is, that they are agreeable by the hour. In the driest days my fountains became disabled: the pipe was stopped up. A couple of plumbers, with the implements of their craft, came out to view the situation. There was a good deal of difference of opinion about where the stoppage was. I found the plumbers perfectly willing to sit down and talk about it-talk by the hour.

2. Some of their guesses and remarks were exceedingly ingenious, and their general observations on other subjects were excellent in their way, and could hardly have been better if they had been made by the job. The work dragged a little— as it is apt to do by the hour. The plumbers had occasion to make me several visits. Sometimes they would find, upon arrival, that they had forgotten some indispensable tool, and one would go back to the shop, a mile and a half, after it, and his comrade would await his return with the most exemplary patience and sit down and talk—always by the hour.

3. I do not know but it is a habit to leave something wanted at the shop. They seemed to me very good workmen, and always willing to stop and talk about the job or anything else when I went near them. Nor had they any of that impetuous hurry that is said to be the bane of our American civilization. To their credit be it said that I never observed any.

thing of it in them. They can afford to wait. Two of them will sometimes wait nearly half a day while a comrade goes for a tool. They are patient and philosophical. It is a great pleasure to meet such men. One only wishes there was some work he could do for them by the hour. There ought to be reciprocity. I think they have very nearly solved the problem of life it is to work for other people, never for yourself, and get your pay by the hour. You then have no anxiety and little work.

4. If you do things by the job, you are perpetually driventhe hours are scourges. If you work by the hour, you gently sail on the stream of Time, which is always bearing you on to the haven of Pay whether you make any effort or not. Working by the hour tends to make one moral. A plumber working by the job, trying to unscrew a rusty, refractory nut in a cramped position, where the tongs continually slipped off, would swear; but I never heard a plumber swear, or exhibit the least impatience at such a vexation, working by the hour. Nothing can move a man who is paid by the hour. How sweet seems the flight of time to his calm mind!

C. D. WARNER.

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SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Anxiety: L. anxi'etas; fr. an'go, anc'tum and anx'um, to bind, to choke, to drive into straits; h., anger, anguish. Effort: fr. L. for'tis, strong. .. Excellent: fr. excel'lo, excel'sum, to raise up, to excel; fr. ex, out, cello, I impel; excel'sus, high; excel'sior, higher. Fervent L. fer'vens; fr. fer'veo, I am boiling hot; h., effervesce, ferment, fervid. . . . Jubilant : L. ju'bilans, shouting; fr. ju’bilo, jubila'tum, to shout; h., jubilee. . . . Plumber: L. plum’bum, lead; h., plummet, etc.... Reciprocity: fr. L. recip'rocus, returning, alternating. Refractory :

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L. refracta'rius, stubborn; fr. refrin'go, refrac'tum, to break up; fr. re and fran'go, I break; h., fractious, fracture, fragile, fragment, frail, frangible (easily broken), in-fract, in-fringe, ir-re-fragable, re-fract (lit., to break back; h., to cause to deviate from a direct line). . . Saint L. sanc'tus, sacred; h., sanctity, etc. Secret L. secre'tus, fr. secer'no, secre'tum, to

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put apart; fr. se, aside, cer'no, I sift or separate; h., secretary, secrete, etc.: v. DISCERN.. Situation: L. situa'tio; fr. sin'o, sit'um, to put or set down, h., site, situate. Suspect: L. suspicio, suspec'tum,; fr. sub and spě'cio, I look. Temper: L. tempèr'ies; fr. tem'pero, tempera'tum, to divide or proportion duly; fr. tem'pus, time; which primarily meant a piece cut off, portion; fr. the Gr. těm'nein, to cut off; h. (fr, tem'pus, tem'poris), con-temporary, ex-tem-po-raneous, ex-tem'po-re (lit., for the time or moment; h., suddenly, off-hand), in-temperate, temporary, temporize (to comply with the times), etc.

XLV. CREATION A CONTINUOUS WORK.

1. WE are accustomed to conceive of the creation of man as a dim, miraculous event of the most ancient time, forgetting that God's scheme of managing the living world is one of perpetual creation. Had our earth been formed of an eternal adamant, subject to no vicissitudes of change through all the cycles of duration, we might, perhaps, well refer to the act of bringing it into existence as especially illustrative of creative power; but where all is changing, transitory and incessantly dissolving away, so that nothing remains immutable but God's conception of being, which the whole universe is for ever hastening to realize, we cannot escape the conviction of his immediate, living, omnipresent constructive agency.

2. The truth is, we are hourly and momentarily created, and it is impossible to imagine in what respect the first act of formative power was more wonderful or glorious, or afforded any more conspicuous display of omnipotent wisdom, than that august procession of phenomena by which man and the entire living world are now and continually called into being.

3. Those material atoms which are to-day interposed between us and destruction are recent from chaos; they were but yesterday formless dust of the earth, corroded and pulverized rocks or fleeting and viewless gases of the air. These, through the vast enginery of astronomic systems, whose impulses of movement spring directly from the Almighty's will, have entered a world of organic order, are wrought into new states and made capable of nourishing the animal body. The mingled gases and mineral dust have become vital aliment. The test-miracle which the tempter of old demanded as evidence of godlike power is disclosed to the eye of science as a result of natural laws, for, in the most literal sense, "stones are made bread."

4. The body of the grown man presents to us the same unaltered aspect of form and size for long periods of time. With the exception of furrows deepening in the countenance, an adult man may seem hardly to alter for half a hundred years. But this appearance is altogether illusory, for with apparent

bodily identity there has really been an active and rapid change, daily and nightly, hourly and momently—an incessant waste and renewal of all the corporeal parts.

5. A waterfall is permanent, and may present the same aspect of identity and unchangeableness from generation to generation, but who does not know that it is certainly made up of particles in a state of swift transition? The cataract is only a form resulting from the definite course which the changing particles pursue. The flame of a lamp presents to us for a long time the same appearance, but its constancy of aspect is caused by a ceaseless change in the place and condition of the chemical atoms which carry on combustion.

6. Just so with man. He appears an unchanged being, endowed with permanent attributes of power and activity, but he is really only an unvarying form, whose constituent particles are for ever changing. As each part of his body is brought into action its particles perish and are replaced by others, and thus destruction and renovation in the vital economy are indissolubly connected and proceed together. It is said, with reference to the casualties to which man is everywhere exposed, that "in the midst of life we are in death;" but physiologically this is a still profounder truth-we begin to die as soon as we begin to live.

7. Very few persons have any correct conception of the rate at which change goes on in their bodies. The average amount of matter taken into the system daily, under given circumstances, has been determined with a considerable degree of precision. From the army and navy diet scales of France and England, which, of course, are based upon the recognized necessities of large numbers of men in active life, it is found that about 24 lbs. avoirdupois of dry food per day are required for each individual; of this, about three-quarters are vegetable and the rest animal. Assuming a standard of 140 lbs. as the weight of the body, the amount of oxygen consumed daily is nearly 2 lbs., which results from breathing about 25 or 30 hogsheads of air; the quantity of water is nearly 41 lbs. for the same time.