For the Schoolmaster. fore Christ. It was named after Janus, c The Origin of the Names and Number of the the Roman deities, who was said to hav Months. faces, and ruled over time. One face wa A TEACHER'S LECTURE TO THE PUPILS OF HIS Wrinkled and weather-beaten; the other, SCHOOL. PUPILS, it may be new to most of you to know why the names of the months were so called, and why the number which we have for is a division year A and fresh-looking. Of these faces, one: backward and the other forward, and January was placed at the beginning of th because with one face Janus seemed to b ing back on the old year, and with th 0 the months was twelve. looking forward toward the new one. of time which has been observed from the re- on ancestors called this month Wolf motest ages; the first years were uncertain and In their time wolves were very num irregular in their length, and the attempts that England, and during this season of the were made to emedy the defect were without came quite ravenous. February, the success, owing to the want of proper instru- month in the year, we owe to Numa P ments for observing the heavenly bodies, and it who added it to the callendar with Jan has required all the ingenuity and learning of dedicated it to the goddess Februa, astronomers for many centuries to lay down ac- supposed to preside over cleansing. curate rules for the measurement of time, and called, by the Saxons, Sprout Rele to enable them to correct dates, so as to make when cabbages and coleworts began the year perfect. The early observers of the March, or Martius, was the first mo Romulus, th course of the sun remarked that it occupied a old Roman calendar. certain number of days in its apparent journey founder of Rome, pretended that I through the heavens, and in the track of the son of Mars, and named the first imaginary circle traced out by it in its progress his reputed father, and thus came lie many clusters of stars, twelve of which were After the time of Numa, who added In the form of each of ing months, March became the third particularly marked. these a supposed resemblance was traced to that The Saxons called this month Rhe of some animal or other object, the names of the rugged month, on account of which were accordingly given to the respective being generally stormy and boister clusters, or constellations, as they were termed, April is the only month in the and figures were drawn to represent them, and all these had reference to the state of the earth, had a name given to it expressive or to the labor of the husbandman, the hunter ance of nature, the name being or the navigator, at the particular time of the the Latin word apuire, to open, The the opening of the buds in sprin sun's passage through the constellation. circle itself was called the Zodiac, from a Greek reign of Numa Rompilius, April word, meaning animal, and the twelve constel- oned the fourth month in the lations are therefore called the Twelve Signs of called by the Saxons Aster-Mon the Zodiac, the names of these and the charac- Monat, because the goddess East ters by which they are now represented on ularly worshipped at this time, a globes and in almanacs being well known to all. May, the fifth in our year, was s TH The Water-bearer, into which the sun enters lo before the time of Romulus, in January, denotes the heavy rains of winter; tor of the Roman callendar. the Archer, a figure half man and horse, armed ed May Tri-Milchi, on accour with a bow, points out the hunting season, and growth of young grass, being so belongs to November; and the Balance signi- the cows gave milk three times fies the equal length of the days and nights, as the sixth month, is said by some though they had been weighed and properly its name from a class of senator adjusted; and every month the sun appears to ese, who assisted Romulus in enter one of these signs of the Zodiac, so the The Saxons called it Weyd-Mo year is thus divided into twelve periods, which beasts did then weyd, or feed, o are the twelve months in the year. January, Afterwards its name was chang being now first, was added to the original Ro- at, or dry month. The fifteent man Celendar by Numa Pompilius, the second is worthy of note, because it is king of Rome, about seven hundred years be- the river Nile begins to rise. first occurs the Summer Solstice, when the sun appears to stand still. At this date, also, is the longest day in the year, and from this time to the second of July, in places remote from the equator, the twilight extends almost from sunrise to sunset. Use of the Nostrils. PEOPLE seem to be just learning that the nostrils were made to breathe through, and that by conforming to the design of the Creator, many infectious fevers may be avoided, and pulmona July, the seventh month, was called by Mark ry complaints lose much of their fatality. The Antony, Julius, in memory of Julius Cæsar, following remarks are worthy of a careful readwho had performed the great service of reform-ing. They are taken from Mr. Catlin's work ing the confused and imperfect callendar. This on "The Breath of Life": "The mouth of man, as well as that of the month was called by the Saxons Mead-Monat, from the beautiful appearance presented by the brutes, was made for the reception and mastifields, which, at this season, are covered with cation of food for their stamach, and other purflowers. In the beginning of July, the bright poses; but the nostrils, with ther delicate and fibrous linings for purifying and warming the star Sirius,, in the constellation of Canis Major, or the Great Dog, rises with the sun. On this air in its passage, have been mysteriously conaccount the time between the third of July and structed and designed to stand guard over the the eleventh of August, is called Dog Days. lungs-to measure the air and equalize its August, the eighth month, was named by the draughts during the hours of repose. The atRoman Senate in honor of Augustus, to whom mosphere is nowhere pure enough for man's we owe the completion of the improvements breathing until it has passed this mysterious rebegun by Julius Cæsar. September, the ninth fining process; and therefore the imprudence and danger of admitting it in an unnatural way month, has a name derived from septem, seven, because it was the seventh month from March. in double quantities upon the lungs, and charged with the surrounding epidemic or contagious It was called by the Saxons Gerst-Monat, from infections of the moment. The impurities of the word gerst, signifying barley, as barley was the air which are arrested by the intricate orthen ready for the sickle; this grain being much ganizations and mucus in the nose, are thrown cultivated by them. again from its interior barriers by the returning breath; and the tingling excitements of the few which pass them cause the muscular involitions of sneezing, by which they are violently and successfully resisted. October takes its name from two Latin words, —octo, eight, and imber, rain. The Saxons call ed it Wine-Monat, for at this season they made their wine. November, the eleventh month, has its name from the Latin word novem, which sig-| nifies nine. It was called by the Saxons BlotThe air which enters the lungs is as different Monat, or Blood-Month, because at this time from that which enters the nostrils as distilled they killed oxen, sheep and pigs, for the purwater is different from the water in an ordinary pose of salting them for winter provision. The cistern or a frog pond. The arresting and purilast month in our year was the tenth of the fying process of the nose upon the atmosphere, early Roman Callendar, as its name, which with its poisonous ingredients, passing through comes from the Latin word decem, indicates ten. it, though less perceptible, is not less distinct, December was called by the Saxons Halig-Mon- nor less important, than that of the mouth, at, or Holy-Month, on account of the observ. which stops cherry-stones and fish-bones from ance of the twenty-fifth as Christmas day, or entering the stomach. This intricate organization in the structure of the Saviour's birth-day. The names which are now in use are far bet-man, unaccountable as it is, seems in a measure ter than if they were descriptive of some pardivested of mystery, when we find the same ticular thing occurring ́in the months or of the phenomena (and others, perhaps, even more seasons, for they may be used in nearly all surprising) in the physical conformation of the countries. Had the names been given on aclower order of animals; and we are again more ( count of some natural appearance, they would astonished when we see the mysterious sensii only have been applicable to that climate for tiveness of that organ in instinctively and ina which they were first intended. stantaneously separating the gases, as well as arresting and rejecting the material impurities of the atmosphere. This unaccountable phe V SHUNOCK. YOUTH and the lark sing in the morning; age nomenon is seen in many cases. We see the ajand the nightingale in the evening. fish surrounded with water, breathing the air upon which it exists. It is a known fact, that the deaths from the dreadful epidemics, such as man can inhale through his nose, for a certain cholera, yellow fever, and other pestilences, are time, mephitic air, in the bottom of a well, with- caused by the inhalation of animalculæ in the out harm; but if he opens his mouth to answer infected districts; and that the victims to those a question, or calls for help, in that position, diseases are those portions of society who inhis lungs are closed and he expires. Most ani- hale the greatest quantities of those poisonous mals are able to inhale the same for a consider - insects in the lungs and to the stomach. able time without destruction of life, and, no In man's waking hours, when his limbs and doubt, solely from the fact that their respira- muscles and his mind are all in action, there tion is through the nostrils, in which the pois- may be but little harm in inhaling through the onous effluvia are arrested. There are many mouth, if he be in a healthy atmosphere; and mineral and vegetable poisons also, which can at moments of violent action and excitement it be inhaled by the nose without harm, but if may be necessary. But when he lies down at taken through the mouth destroy life. And so night to rest from the fatigues of the day, and with poisonous reptiles and poisonous animals. yields his system and all his energies to the reThe man who kills the rattlesnake or the cop- pose of sleep; and his volition and all his powperhead, and stands alone over it, keeps his ers of resistance are giving way to its quieting mouth shut, and receives no harm; but if he influence, f he gradually opens his mouth to has companions with him, with whom he is the widest strain, he lets the enemy in that conversing, over the carcasses of these reptiles, chills his lungs, that racks his brain, that parahe inhales the poisonous effluvia through the lyzes his stomach, that gives him the nightmare, mouth and becomes deadly sick, and in some brings him imps and fairies that dance before instances death ensues. Infinitessimal insects, him during the night; and during the following also, not visible to the naked eye, are inhabiting day headache, toothache, rheumatism, dyspepevery drop of water we drink, and every breath sia and the gout. That man knows not the of air we breathe; and minute particles of veg-pleasure of sleep; he rises in the morning more etable substances, as well as of poisonous min- fatigued than when he retired to rest-takes erals, and even glass and silex, which float im- pills and remedies during the day, and renews perceptibly in the air, are discovered coating the his disease every night. A guilty conscience is respitory organs of man; and the class of birds even a better guaranty for peaceful rest than which catch their food in the air with open such a treatment of the lungs during the hours mouths as they fly, receive these things in of sleep. Destructive irritation of the lungs, quantities, even in the hollow of their bones, with its consequences, is the immediate result where they are carried and lodged by the currents of air, and detected by microscopic investigation. of this unnatural habit, and its continued and more remote effects, consumption of the lungs and death.-Arthur's Home Magazine. From the Indiana School Journal. Against the approach of these things to the lungs and the eyes, nature has prepared the guard by the mucous and organic arrangements calculated to arrest their progress. Were it not MR. EDITOR: Some time since I held an for the liquid in the eye, arresting, neutralizing Examination for admission to the Teacher's and carrying out the particles of dust commun- Profession, and I propose giving you a part of icated through the atmosphere, man would soon the result in Geography. There were forty become blind; and but for the mucous in his printed questions proposed and twenty-five cornostrils. absorbing and carrying off the poison-rect answers required to insure a certificate. ous particles and effluvia, for the protection of Below are some of the more egregious blunders. the lungs and the brain, mental derangement, consumption of the lungs and death would en sue. Question. What is Geography? Answer. A history of continents. Q. To what two natural divisions of water are all others tributary? How easy and how reasonable it is to suppose, then, that the inhalation of such things to the lungs, through the expanded mouth and throat, may be a cause of consumption and other fatal diseases attaching to the respiratory water. organs; and how fair a supposition, also, that globe. A. A portion of land almost surrounded by The eastern and western side of the Q. What is a peninsula ? A. A point of land extending into the water. A tract of land not surrounded by water. Q. Where is Mount Vesuvius ? A. In South America. The above blunders would be laughable in Q. What grand division contains two-thirds the extreme, were there not sad reflections arisof the fresh water of the globe? A. Lakes. Texas. ing from the perusal of them. They indicate an exceedingly low standard of qualification Q. In what direction does the river Amazon upon the part of many proposing to teach, and flow, and into what does it empty? A. It empties into the Pacific. It runs a southerly direction and empties into a gulf. It runs a northerly direction and empties into the Arctic Ocean. Q. Where are the tropics? A. They run toward each pole. They are south. One north, the other south. They are twenty-three and one-half degrees from the equator, and extend to the poles. They are twenty-three and one-half degrees east and west from the equator. Q. Where are the polar circles? A. At the north pole. The north polar circle is at the north pole, and the south polar circle at the south pole. Q. Are the tropics and polar circles of the same extent ? A. No, some are cold, and some are hot. A. Distance north and south. and west. Distance east A place from which we reckon time. Q. Describe the river Nile, and tell its two peculiarities. A. It rises in the western part of Africa, runs an eastern course, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea. It is a long, crooked river. A very straight river, running north and south. It is in China, and waters the whole country. It runs through a fertile valley in Asia, and is full of alligators. promise poorly for the future progress of the rising generation in an interesting and highly useful branch of learning. You will do me the justice to believe that there is not the least exaggeration in the above list of errors. They were actually made as stated, and deliberately too, for the teachers (?) were two whole hours in their preparation. Heavy the cross, e'en death is dear, Dear Lamb of God, enhance thy cross Our Moral Atmosphere. BY VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND. DID it ever strike you, oh reader! that at different times, and under widely different influences, you are yourself a different person; and that your feelings, thoughts, views, on many points, are susceptible of great changes and fluctuations? Now take this home-is n't it true? Have we not all of us relatives, friends, acquaintances, in whose society our aims and purposes and views become modified, so subtly that we are hardly aware of it ourselves; and riches seem sometimes the one great needful thing of life, without which there is little comfort or worth in living; and in another, dress assumes vast importance; and in another, position is greatly magnified, and so on, and the influences are as varied as the people we meet, or the soils of the human heart. Now, there is much to watch and guard against here. There are so many people witty, generous, good-natured, most agreeable companions, whose society we enjoy, and yet who, after all, never make us any better-never reach Tthe highest and best side of our natures, but, on the whole, imperceptibly lower our moral tone, weaken our highest purposes, check our best aspirations, and, unconsciously to themselves, and us at the time, persuade us down into a lower atmosphere, a grosser one, where a pleasant, easy, enjoyable life seems the best thing, after all. And it may be that these people, too, are in the habit of jesting about the best and noblest Especially will this be the case if you are things of life - the things which are lovely and young, impulsive, susceptible. The older one of good report; it would be harsh to call it grows the more years and experience ripen sneering; it seems too much to name it ridicule ; character for good or for evil, the less pervious and yet, somehow, the tone and words soil the do they become to the influences, stimulants things which you most love and reverence, and and moral temperature of those with whom you feel they are held in slight contempt. they are brought into social relations. And with some people we utter sentiments But probably no man or woman ever reaches and make careless, thoughtless speeches; we such a pachydermatous as not to be acted upon, criticise, ridicule, condemn, in a sweeping, unand receive some impulsion for good or for evil, sparing fashion, which we would not do at anfrom those with whom they do most frequently other time, and the memories of which rise up associate; and the stronger one's approbative- and startle and shame us in our better, more ness, the keener one's sensitiveness, the warmer exalted moods. one's sympathies, and the quicker one's impres- There are people who never inspire our highsibility, the more necessity for being on one's est thoughts; before whom we should be actguard against those persons and influences ually afraid or ashamed to utter our deepest which do not refine, elevate, purify. convictions, our loftiest aspirations; people beWe are all aware that in the society of some fore whom we seem to lose moral courage, and persons the things, the aims, the purposes, get morbidly sensitive to ridicule and wrong, which are to us of highest value and deepest and with whom our speech, thoughts, emotions concern in life, seem to grow small and indis- inevitably drift into lower channels. Now, tinct and the things which, surrounded by there is no denying that all good people are not higher influences, seemed comparatively insig- agreeable-we wish they were. There are many nificant, and to occupy a lower plane in all re- good men and women with whom it might ofspects, suddenly become the things to be chiefly ten be tedious, dull and discordant to pass an desired and sought after the things which, hour; their habits, their culture, their faults of after all, will make our chief importance and head or infirmities of character, may prevent well being in life. them from being agreeable companions; and |