NOTES AND QUERIES.

SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.— An English monthly, called The Nevsky Magazine, is now published at St. Petersburg; aud the English language is much studied and used by the educated classes in Russia. The Czar is quite familiar both with the language and with its current literature, and also with British and American newspapers. A translation of Shakspeare into Bohemian will ere long

appear.

Probably few are aware that the English is the simplest of all European languages and the easiest to learn to read understandingly. Our spelling is most abominable, though hardly worse than the French; but our etymology and syntax are simple: hence it is easy to learn to read understandingly, but difficult to connect the pronunciation with the words.

SOLECISMS The following letter and reply are from the Independent, and suggest points worth remembering.

"To the Editors of the Independent:

"MESSRS. EDITORS: Ca' n't you find some other expression than 'in our midst'? particularly to use in an obituary'. It may be a proper expression, but certainly it is a very poor one, to say the least. Why not say in our amongst as well? I know there has been much controversy about this expression, and have also noticed few finished scholars make use of it. Will you please give it a thought, and see if you don't come to the same conclusion as your

LADY READER?

"In our midst' is, we believe, a Scotch Presbyterian ecclesiasticism. It is bad for various reasons: because 'midst' with its terminal whiz of hissing consonants is a disagreeable bunch of sounds; because our midst' is an awkward metaphor; and because there is abundance of phrases which will serve the turn. 'In our amongst', which our correspondent suggests, is not a parallel case, as amongst' is a preposition, and midst' a noun.

་

"We print our justly critical correspondent's letter with her own italies, for the sake of killing two birds with one stone. Her italics are all wrong. The words

which are italicized in the former three places in her letter needed no such distinction, as an intelligent reader would emphasize them properly without it: and the phrase in our amongst' should have been quoted, as her first quotation was. Excessive italicizing is one of the besetting literary sins of ladies."

Both the lady critic and the Editor of the Independent condemn the phrase on rhetorical and not on grammatical grounds. It is a phrase of recent origin, and hence is not in accordance with the received usages of the language, though not false syntax. Geo. P. Marsh condemns it vehemently, and gives a grammatical reason, which we believe to be a false one, despite our regard for his authority: he thinks that it violates the law of the possessive case. His view of the possessive case, similar to that reviewed in the Teacher, vol. vii, p. 130, if we comprehend him rightly, can be abundantly refuted.

LITERARY PEERS.- Macaulay was the first man elevated to the peerage in England mainly in honor of literary eminence; and he had been a member of Parliament, and had occupied administrative office. Besides, his having no child had an influence in securing to him the honor. Recently Richard Monckton Milnes, M.P. for Pontefract and principally known for his poems and his life of Keats, has been created Baron Houghton. The same rank was tendered to him twenty years ago by Lord Melbourne, and declined.

"THE SCHOOLMASTER IS ABROAD."- This quotation is quite familiar: here is its history.

In a speech on the elevation of Wellington, a mere military chieftain, to the premiership, after the death of Canning, Loid Brougham said "Field - Marshal the Duke of Wellington may take the army, he may take the navy, he may take the mitre. I make him a present of them all. Let him come on with his whole

force, sword in hand, against the constitution, and the English people will not only beat him back, but laugh at his assaults. In other times the country may have heard with dismay that the soldier was abroad'. It is not so now. Let the soldier be abroad, if he will; he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage abroad - a person less imposing, in the eyes of some perhaps insignifiThe Schoolmaster is abroad; and I trust to him, armed with primer, against the soldier in full military array."

cant.

TANGRAM. — This word has been creeping into use for a few years past. It is not in either the Webster or the Worcester Quarto Dictionary, nor in any vocabulary in my library. I first noticed it in Dr. Thomas Hill's Cambridge Address on the 'True Order of Studies', republished enlarged in Barnard's Journal of Education, vols. vi and vii. (See vol. vi, p. 452.) Webster has "Trangram. n. An odd thing intricately contrived.-Arbuthnot. [It is said to be a cant word, and is not used.]" Worcester says "Trangram. n. An odd intricate contrivance; a gimcrack. [A cant word.]-Arbuthnot." Both these lexicographers copied from Johnson, and perhaps knew no more than what he says. I can find no reason for regarding trangram as a cant word. Wycherly in his comedy The Plain Dealer, published in 1677, says "But go, thou trangame, and carry back those trangames which thou hast stol'n or purloin'd." Here is the same word meaning a toy, a trifling thing'. Wright's Provincial Dictionary gives us also “Trangrain, s. A strange thing. Old. Dict." I can not trace the word further, but I suspect that it is a Chinese word, as I can not trace it in any European language, and it has a Chinese sound, and our recent books speak of the Chinese tangram.

"

·

The Chinese tangram is a toy made of a square of thin wood or other suitable material cut into seven pieces of regular geometrical figure, as shown in the margin. Several hundred figures may be made with them; and the tangram is sold as a toy, with a book of outlines of figures which are to be imitated with the pieces in combina tion, which proves to be often a great puzzle. Though originally a toy, it is now used as a means of instruction. Dr. Hill says, at the page of Barnard's Journal above cited, The second means of geometrical education is to be found in the Chinese tangram or geometrical puzzle. This consists in giving the child the outline of a figure and requiring him to form the figure by placing together a given number of pasteboard triangles. Outlines should at first be given which may be formed by placing together two or three triangles; and the complexity of the outline may afterward be increased so as to require as many as seven pieces of pasteboard. These puzzles are adapted for children of the age of from four to twelve years. They cultivate the power of exact observation and of the rapid analysis or dissection of forms." If the reader is willing to be a child of over twelve years, let him cut out a tangram and make the seven pieces into two equal squares. (See Calkins's Object Lessons, etc., p. 47.)

Probably the thing as a toy and puzzle, with the name, came from China, and gave rise to the words trangram, trangrain, and trangame, as cited above, with their several meanings.

ARROW.-The Broad Arrow (in England) is a rude representation of an arrow with a large and forked head, which is put by custom-house or excise officials upon any package seized by them as contraband: for example, upon smuggled goods or those that have not paid the excise. No one would venture to purchase goods bearing such a mark unless sold by authority. Scott (in Guy Mannering, ch. ix) tells of officers and military who "poured down upon the kegs, bales and bags" that had been landed by a smuggler, "and after a desperate affray succeed

ed in clapping the broad arrow upon the articles and bearing them off in triumph to the next custom-house." This will explain an otherwise dark passage in Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh, near the close of that poem:

"On all these lesser gifts,

Constrained by conscience and the sense of wrong,

He had stamped with steady hand God's arrow-mark
Of dedication to the human need."

NOTICES OF BOOKS, ETC.

THE FIRST THREE BOOKS OF XENOPHON'S ANABASIS: With Explanatory Notes, and References to Hadley's and Kühner's Greek Grammars, and to Goodwin's Greek Moods and Tenses; a Copious Greek-English Vocabulary, and Kiepert's Map of the Route of the Ten Thousand. By James R. Boise, Professor in the University of Michigan. One Volume, 12mo., 268pp. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co.

This work, which was prepared at the suggestion of several classical teachers, is intended exclusively for young men who are fitting themselves for college. The text is substantially that of Hertlein (2d edition, 1854), with a few variations adopted from L. Dindorf (2d edition, Oxford, 1855). The vocabulary is the result of much labor, and will prove an important aid to the student.

GEOLOGY FOR TEACHERS, CLASSES, AND PRIVATE STUDENTS. By Sanborn Tenney, A.M., Lecturer on Physical Geography and Natural History in the Massachusetts Teachers' Institutes. Illustrated by 200 engravings. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co. Chicago: W. B. Keen & Co.

This work is admirably adapted to the wants of our public schools. Its definitions are exceedingly clear and precise; and enough of each topic is presented to form the basis of a lesson or a lecture. The figures of fossils represent American and not foreign species, and are such as can be easily found in many of the Western rock-quarries and coal-fields.

Its classification of geological formations is based upon the American system, and is well adapted to this state, leaving out the granitic and cretaceous groups. It can be compassed in a single term, which is as much as can be devoted to this subject in most of our public schools, and would form a fitting companion to Prof. Wilber's map.

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY, ILLUSTRATED BY SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS. By J. Adolph Stöckhardt. Translated by C. H. Pierce, M.D. 16th Thousand. Philadelphia E. H. Butler & Co. Chicago: W. B. Keen & Co.

:

Works on chemistry are abundant; but most of them take for granted an expensive apparatus and a laboratory. This is one of the exceptional books, designed to bring the practical study of the science within the means of elementary schools, and suited to the winter-evening firesides, where the young and old of both sexes would delight in chemical experiments, were it not for the apparently necessary expensive apparatus. With this work, a few tubes and flasks, a spiritlamp, some corks, india-rubber and reägent bottles, almost complete the list.

As a text-book nothing more is to be desired. It is convenient in classification, and lucid in explanation of principles and of chemical phenomena. It is also

well adapted to the wants of teachers who desire to give occasional experimental lectures at a moderate expense, or who design to study the science without an in

structor.

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE TRINITY CHAPEL, BRIGHTON. By the late Rev. Frederick W. Robertson. Fifth Series. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 271pp.

These sermons have had a very extensive reading. They are popular because they show themselves to be calm, clear and devout utterances of an earnest man.

STUMBLING BLOCKS. By Gail Hamilton. Ticknor & Fields. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 435pp. $1.50.

A series of essays on religious subjects, originally published in the Congregationalist, and all marked by the decided and peculiar way of putting things which marks the author's style.

THE MAINE WOODS. By Henry D. Thoreau. Ticknor & Fields. S. C. Griggs & Co. 328pp. $1.25.

This volume contains three papers. The first, Katahdin, appeared in the Union Magazine in 1848; the second, Chesuncook, came out in the Atlantic in 1858; and the last, The Maine Woods, is now for the first time printed. It is one of those delightful books of travel of which one can not have enough, and which claim and secure a second reading.

THE ELEMENTS OF PLANE TRIGONOMETRY AND SURVEYING. By William F. Bradbury. Boston: Taggard & Thompson. Chicago: W. B. Keen & Co. 129-112pp. The qualities which give especial value to the book just noticed belong in an eminent degree to this higher work. It contains in the space of only sixty-five pages all essential principles of Plane Trigonometry, by both the geometrical and analytical methods, and their application to the measurement of hights and distances, with the explanation of all the tables required, and in as many more pages all that is necessary to make the work complete for the common surveyor. This brevity has been attained by stating every thing in the most concise form consistent with perspicuity, and describing only such instruments as are absolutely necessary to a correct understanding of the principles involved.

A TREATISE ON PLANE AND SOLID GEOMETRY. For schools, academies, and private students. Written for Ray's Mathematical Course, by Eli T. Tappan, M. A., Prof. of Mathematics in Mt. Auburn Institute. Cincinnati: Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle. Chicago: Cobb, Pritchard & Co. 276pp.

We have all seen those works on science-made-easy which attempt to perform so much of the necessary digestion as to render it capable of assimilation by the weakest mental stomach. Few of us have, however, seen any good result proceeding from their use. What was gained in speed was always lost in power; for those parts which make the thorough student, and which can not be acquired without hard study, were the ones omitted, and as a matter of course superficial scholarship resulted.

The volume under notice seeks the same end, but pursues an entirely different means. Commencing with ratio and proportion, and proceeding carefully and thoroughly, straight lines, circumferences, triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, circles, polyhedrons, and solids of revolution, follow each other successively, and are

each treated clearly and briefly, and, what is best of all, accompanied by copious examples, problems, suggestions, and exercises.

Some may object to the method of stating the propositions, but we are glad to see an author cut loose from the old-time verbiage of our earlier works, and give us the simple language of the theorems, and the brief but lucid demonstrations characterizing this work. These points, and the excellent arrangement, by which the illustrations and problems are introduced as they occur, in stead of being thrust in at the latter end of the book, will make it a favorite.

GREENE'S SERIES OF GRAMMARS. Consisting of Introduction. 16mo., 192pp. 30 cents. English Grammar. 12mo., 264pp. 30 cents. Analysis. 12mo., 258pp. 50 cents. Philadelphia: H. Cowperthwait & Co.

These three books comprise a very full and complete discussion of the structure of our mother tongue. So far as a method of instruction in introducing this study can be embraced in text-book and written lessons, the author's plan is a marked success. While, from an appeal to the child's own knowledge and observation of things and the words used in naming or speaking of them, he becomes so much interested that the exercise is robbed of its dryness, he is at the same time laying a foundation for the true study of language, the relations of ideas as expressed in words, and not the mere husk of hollow forms.

With this idea as the distinguishing feature, the grammar points out the offices and relations of words in a manner clear and perspicuous. Frequent exercises, with cautions and directions, are introduced, requiring the learner to test the completeness of his knowledge by actual practice. This book contains enough of analysis to meet the wants of most classes in our schools.

But to those who wish to pursue farther the study of our language, to study its structure, to analyze thought as expressed in words, and to be able to express their own thoughts with precision, the third book in the series will be an essential aid. This is the most important part of the study, not only in its practical results but as a mental discipline. The book before us is quite exhaustive, harmonious in its method, and free from obscurity in the treatment of its subject.

As a series we consider this inferior to no other which has been brought before the public.

GEOGRAPHICAL QUESTIONS. Philadelphia: H. Cowperthwait & Co.

W.

This capital little book is more especially adapted to Warren's Common School Geography, but teachers will find it very convenient for frequent use with any text-book whatever.

W.

FIRST LESSONS IN GEOMETRY. 16mo., 144pp. SECOND BOOK IN GEOMETRY. 12mo., 136pp. By Rev. Thomas Hill, LL.D. Boston: Brewer & Tileston.

The education of the powers of sensation and perception lies at the foundation of a true system of mental culture., Hence the cultivation of ideas of form comes early in the process of mental development. The First Lessons in Geometry' simply presents some of the elementary facts of the science, with familiar illustrations and diagrams. Mathematical reasoning is not attempted or desired It is intended for children from six to twelve years of age.

The second book is given as a sequel to the first, and after there has been some acquaintance with arithmetic. In this the reasoning powers are exercised,