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citizens assembled to behold the spectacle. The conflagration extended its devastating career. The progress of the devouring element could not be arrested. One of those omnipresent characters, who, as if in pursuance of some previous arrangement, are certain to be encountered when an accident occurs, ventured the suggestion .However, the edifice was totally consumed, notwithstanding the most energetic efforts of those noble men, who on such occasions, rush to the call of duty." (Expressed in plain language). "A great fire broke out. A great crowd came to see. The fire spread. The fire could not be checked. A bystander advised ..But the house was burned to the ground, in spite of all that the firemen could do."

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Here we may remark that the most learned and accomplished scientists are those who are able and willing to speak or write on technical subjects in a plain and popular style suited to the understanding of the most mixed audience. Examples can easily be found from Huxley and Tyndall. Here is one from Professor Agassiz;

"Before the year 1800, men had never suspected that their home had been tenanted in past times by a set of beings totally different from those that inhabit it now; still further was it from their thought to imagine that creation after creation had followed each other in successive ages, every one stamped with a character peculiarly its own It was Cuvier who, aroused to new labours by the hint he received from Montmartre, to which all his vast knowledge of living animals gave him no clue, established, by means of most laborious investigations, the astounding conclusion that, prior to the existence of the animals and plants now living, this globe had been the

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theatre of another set of beings, every trace of whom had vanished from the surface of the earth.................................. The solid crust of the earth gave up its dead, and from the snows of Siberia, from the soil of Italy, from caves of central Europe, from mines, from the rent sides of mountains and from their highest peaks, from the coral beds of ancient oceans, the varied animals that had possessed the earth ages before man was created spoke to us of the past."

The following verses, by Professor Alexander, entitled Monosyllabics," may be studied with profit;—

66

"Think not that strength lies in the big, round word,
Or that the brief and plain must needs be weak.
To whom can this be true who once has heard
The cry for help, the tongue that all men speak,
When want, or woe, or fear is in the throat,

So that each word gasped out is like a shriek
Pressed from the sore heart, or a strange, wild note,
Sung by some fay or fiend? There is a strength
Which dies, if stretched too far or spun too fine,
Which has more weight than breadth, more depth than
length.

Let but this force of thought and speech be mine,
And he that will may take the sleek, fat phrase,
Which glows and burns not, though it gleam and shine-
Light, but no heat-a flash, but not a blaze!
Nor is it mere strength that the short word boasts;
It serves of more than fight or storm to tell,
The roar of waves that clash on rock-bound coasts,
The crash of tall trees when the wild winds swell,
The roar of guns, the groans of men that die
On blood-stained fields. It has a voice as well
For them that far off on their sick beds lie!

For them that weep, for them that mourn the dea
For them that laugh and dance, and clap the hand;
To joy's quick step, as well as grief's slow tread,
The sweet, plain words we learnt at first keep time;
And though the theme be sad, or gay, or grand,
With each, with all, these may be made to chime,
In thought, or speech, or song, or prose, or rhyme."

ACCURACY.

59. We now come to the consideration of Accuracy in the use of words. To use words accurately, we must attach to them a certain meaning, make it clear what that meaning is, and combine them in phrases consistent with the idiom of the English language. In order to attain accuracy, the student is recommended to make careful notes of sentences containing such words as belong to any of the following classes ;

(a). Words having more than one meaning. Thus ;To take a rest; to leave the rest.

A nervous woman; a nervous sentence.

To cleave to one's friends; to cleave the trunk of a tree. A box of fruit; a box at a theatre; the box of a coach; a Christmas box; a box on the ear; the border was surrounded with box.

A heavy burden; the burden of a song.

A bluebottle fly; a fly-wheel; to hire a fly.

(b). Words used in certain idiomatic phrases. Thus ;Men answer questions; they reply to attacks.

A laudable act; a praiseworthy person.

To make friends; to make merry; to make way; to make good; to make amends; to make a doubt; to

make a present; to make a point; to make an end; to make an offer; to make nothing of it; to make it out; to make as though; &c.

(c). Cognate words,—that is, words derived from the same root, differing slightly in form but widely in meaning. Thus ;

Habit and habitation; consequent and consequential; presumptive and presumptuous; spirited and spiritual; falseness, falsity, and falsehood; observation and observance; conscience and consciousness; neglect and negligence; contemptibly and contemptuously.

(d). Words that are nearly synonymous. True synonymes in English, or in any language, are extremely rare. To distinguish between apparent synonymes requires delicacy, clearness, and practice and is well worth the careful attention of the student. Examples;-Courage is displayed in meeting danger; Fortitude, in supporting pain.

Custom is the frequent repetition of the same act; Habit is the effect of such repetition.

We are surprised at what is unexpected; astonished at what is vast or great; amazed at what we cannot understand; confounded at what is shocking or terrible. To abhor implies strong dislike; to detest adds to this dislike a feeling of strong blame.

Enough has reference to the quantity one wishes to have; Sufficient to that which one needs.

To avow is to admit with pride or pleasure; to acknowledge is to admit a small mistake only; to confess is used in connection with greater offences.

Swiftness implies rapid motion; Velocity, motion without reference to speed.

One is opposed to none, and means not none, any;

Only means not more than one; Alone is opposed to with others, and means unaccompanied at the time; Only means always unaccompanied.

Whole means that which has nothing taken from it; Complete, that which has all its parts perfect; Entire refers to unity of parts; Whole, to the connection of parts; Total, to the aggregate of parts.

Superstitious means too ceremonious or scrupulous in matters of belief; Credulous, too easy of belief; Bigoted obstinate in belief; Enthusiastic, zealous in belief; Fanatical, zealous in bigotry.

Inexorable is what no entreaty can bend; Inflexible, what nothing can bend.

Persuasion is produced by an appeal to the feelings, has only imperfect proof, and is liable to become doubt; Conviction is what appeals to the reason, and is founded on satisfactory proofs.

Discovery is the finding of what existed before, but in an unnoticed state; Invention is the making of that which never existed before.

Silence describes an actual state; Taciturnity, a habitual disposition.

To hope expresses a welcome anticipation; To expect, that which is certain to occur.

(e). Antithetical terms,—that is, words of exactly
opposite meaning. Thus ;-

Black and White; Light and Darkness; Virtue and
Vice. (See also 36.)

PROPRIETY.

60. It is more difficult to state definite rules for the attainment of Propriety in the use of words. The following