From this tongue we derive words descriptive of the earliest and dearest communions of life. It is the language of daily familiar converse, and embodies nearly all our national proverbs, Many of our invective, satirical, and humorous phrases, are derived from this language, which has survived the Danish and the Norman conquests, and the invasion of hostile forces of Greek and Latin words, which threatened to overwhelm its indigenous terms.

"We may congratulate ourselves that the Saxon thus retains its ascendency in the English tongue, as it gives to it much of its raciness and force. The orator and the poet can never cultivate it without advantage. The sounds of many of its words are often a spell which they may use with wonderful effect. The common people understand it more readily than they do words of classic origin. It appeals most powerfully to the sensibilities of our common nature, as may be seen in those Scripture narratives or statements, the words of which are, almost without exception, Anglo-Saxon. The history of Joseph, the parable of the prodigal son, and the plaintive declaration of the psalmist- My heart is smitten, and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread,' may be cited as illustrations of its beauty and adaptation to move the strongest and most powerful feelings of our nature.

"Our obligations to the classical elements incorporated with our language are neither few nor unimportant. They have not only polished and refined its general outline, but have made most valuable contributions to our vocabulary. We are not only indebted to them for the greater part of the language of philosophy and science, but for duplicates of many common words, which add much to the variety of harmony and expression. To the Latin we are especially indebted for these advantages. It was introduced effectually by Augustine, and was not extirpated by the Danes from any considerable part of the country. The Saxon churchmen were amongst the best scholars of their day. Latin was the language of their religion, and they set an example which was followed till after the Reformation, of giving to the world their choicest productions in this classic tongue. Greek began to be cultivated extensively in the reign of Henry VIII; and this language has enriched ours with many scientific and ecclesiastical words, but beyond this it has not much affected our tongue.

"On the conquest of England by William the Norman, French was introduced into his court, and to the halls of justice. This, however, never became the language of the people, though it prevailed amongst the higher classes. The intercourse between the French and English for several centuries led to the adoption of many French words, with little deviation from their original, as also many words of Latin derivation. The limited influence of the French language on ours is very remarkable. Still we should re member that we are indebted to France, and to other countries, for an influx of phrases descriptive of substantial improvement, which we have received from them. Music, sculpture, and painting, have borrowed many of their terms from Italy; several nautical phrases were brought from Flanders and Holland; the French language has supplied us with military and gastronomic terms; while mathematics and philosophy are indebted to Greek and Latin compounds. Such are the chief sources of the English language, which, if variegated in its materials, is at once compact and beautiful.

"The fourteenth century may be referred to as the time when the modern English was properly commenced. The Saxon chronicles do not come down quite so low as this, shewing that their language was on the wane. About the time we have named, a great change was effected in the phraseology of the laws, and the pleadings in court, by the abolition of French, and the introduction of the vernacular language. Soon after this period our earliest prose writers began to flourish; and now, after the lapse of five centuries, it is gratifying to find our old English writers so intelligible as they are. With the exception of a few obsolete terms, Wycliffe and even Chaucer may easily be read by an English student.

"From this period the language advanced in refinement and copiousness, till the days of Elizabeth, in which we incline to think it assumed its most perfect form. The writers of the next generation are found to have declined in purity, when compared with Hooker and Raleigh. The prose, even of Milton and Bacon, though very excellent, is in some degree pedantic. The received version of the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular tongue has done much to preserve the language from deterioration, by rendering the Bible a standard of appeal, which is all but universally recognised. "The pure and beautiful style of Dryden served to exalt and dignify the English language. Addison's grace and ease must be admired, even when his strength is doubted. Dr. Johnson conferred numerous advantages on the language, while, by his pedantic style, and introduction of Latin words, he inflicted an injury upon it, from which it has but recently recovered. The present age, so prolific of writers, has, perhaps, furnished several who would suffer nothing from comparison, in purity of style, with any class of authors in any by-gone period. Our language is not now a fluctuating one; yet is in some danger of being corrupted by the introduction of American words, many of which have been long current with the illiterate, and are now working their way to notoriety, as they are occasionally used by respectable journalists, and even in the legislature of our country."

Our English Bible. The Religious Tract Society.
Series.)

(Monthly

Many are the blessings which the Reformation has conferred on this nation, and among them stands prominent the placing the Scriptures in the hands, and within the reach of the understanding, of the people at large. The volume before us contains an account of the successive steps by which this great boon was conferred on the English nation.

The Life of Mrs. Savage. By Sir JOHN B. WILLIAMS. A new edition. The Religious Tract Society.

A new edition of a delightful book. We cordially recommend this life of the excellent daughter of devout Philip Henry to our female readers.

FOR THE WEEK-DAY TEACHER.

ARITHMETIC.

THIS is a branch of instruction valued by the parents of the children, and therefore by their teachers. In most of the schools, and in some very indifferent ones, it was cultivated with considerable

success.

Great improvement however might, and doubtless will henceforth, be made in the methods of teaching. It was usual to find a satisfactory degree of expertness in working from the common rules, whilst the children were unable to write from dictation a number above 10,000.

Rarely were schools met with, in which the scholars understood the processes of the first four simple rules. I mean the elder scholars, of course; for I am far from thinking that the reasons of the rules ought to be, in all cases, taught to young children with the rules themselves. The reverse order seems, in general, the proper one: first, to ensure a familiarity with numbers, the symbols for them, and the mode of dealing with them; and then to discuss the reasons for familiarized operations. A teacher with knowledge and tact will however, from the first, make his instructions in a suitable measure intelligent: and the Battersea books on calculation, and the Battersea experience, it may be added, show that more may be done in this way than has commonly been supposed. Any person, moreover, will have been convinced of this who has visited schools in France, where arithmetic is made a chief means of culture, and is peculiarly well and intelligently taught.

Some attention has been paid to mental calculation in most of the better class of schools; but it was rarely carried beyond a few hackneyed rules, or practised in such a manner as to call forth and exercise the faculties to any very good purpose. It is to be regretted that exercises in mental calculation should not be employed at every stage of the pupil's progress, for developing his conceptions of the relation of number, and rendering his use of arithmetical rules more intelligent. Children may easily be converted into machines for ready-reckoning, but, in a practical view, this is scarcely worth while and, for the scholar's education, exercises gone through in this spirit are of small service. I was glad to meet with no instance of the tricks by which apparently prodigious results, in power and rapidity of calculation, are sometimes produced in order to astonish. -Rev. A. Thurtell's Report.

PUPIL TEACHERS.

THE attainments and fitness of the candidates presented for my examination, during the present year, were, in general, considerably greater. The lapse of some months had made a sensible difference. The requisite qualifications had become better appreciated, and great efforts had been made to raise both scholars and pupil teachers up to the new standard, which, it had been discovered, was to be rigidly insisted on. There will soon be no objection to putting the most rigid interpretation that is possible on the terms in which the qualifications of candidates for apprenticeship are described. The best pupils of 13 years of age will be readily provided with them in most of the better class of schools.

In one respect the preparation of almost all the candidates was defective, viz., in their ability to manage and instruct a class. Very few of them had much notion of teaching; and yet, from the improvement I witnessed in the teaching powers of the apprentices at the end of the first year, there seems no doubt that the candidates for apprenticeship will soon be brought to a satisfactory state in this respect.

An important part of these examinations, and one which tends to lessen greatly the hardships to which many deserving teachers will be put, in striving to reach the new standard of requirement in their calling is the examination to which the teacher is invited, in the subjects of instruction, during the following year, that are prescribed for the pupils apprenticed to him. All the younger teachers, who possess fair natural abilities and energy, will thus be led gradually to the attainment of the reasonable amount of qualifications required for obtaining a certificate of merit. As soon as it is understood with what moderation, and consideration for practical ends, that standard has been set, and how assured any school teacher may feel of being able to reach it, by simply obtaining a good acquaintance with the subjects which he is teaching every day, and by cultivating the power of teaching those subjects efficiently, few of the better class of teachers, it is to be hoped, will hesitate to apply vigorously to the obtaining of this essential requisite for success in their vocation. Ibid.

GEOGRAPHY.

GEOGRAPHY generally forms part of the instruction given in the schools; that is to say, the children in the first classes (seldom those in the second) are taught the names of countries, chief towns,

chains of mountains, &c., which probably they forget a few weeks after they leave the school. They forget them, simply because the names of these places are not associated in their minds with anything in which they can take an interest; and it is seldom that any attempts are made to give the children an idea of the physical geography, the natural history, the mineral productions, or the manners and customs of the inhabitants of the countries the names of which they thus learn by heart. The following passage from the late Dr. Arnold's Lectures on History contains some admirable hints on the study of geography in connexion with history, which teachers in our National Schools would do well to bear in mind. "Let us consider a little what a knowledge of geography is. First, I grant, that it is a knowledge of the relative position and distance of places from one another; and by places I mean either towns or the habitations of particular tribes or nations; for I think our first notion of a map is that of a plan of the dwellings of the human race; we connect it strictly with man, and with man's history. And here I believe many persons' geography stops; they have an idea of the shape, relative position, and distance of different countries; and of the position, that is, as respects the points of the compass, and mutual distance of the principal towns. Every one, for example, has a notion of the shapes of France and of Italy, that one is situated north-west of the other, and that their frontiers join; and again, every one knows that Paris is situated in the north of France, Bordeaux in the south-west; that Venice lies at the north-east corner of Italy, and Rome nearly in the middle as regards north and south, and near to the Western Sea. Thus much of geography is indeed indispensable to the simplest understanding of history; and this kind of knowledge, extending over more or less countries a it may be, and embracing with more or less minuteness the divisons, provinces, and the position of the smaller towns, is that which pisses, I believe, with many for a knowledge of geography. Yet you will observe that this knowledge does not touch the earth itself, but only the dwellings of men upon the earth. It regards the shapes of a certain number of great national estates, if I may so call them, the limits of which, like those of individuals' property, have often repect to no natural boundaries, but are purely arbitrary. A real knowledge of geography embraces at once a knowledge of the earth, and of the dwellings of man upon it; it stretches out one hand to hitory and the other to geology and physiology; it is just that part inthe dominion of knowledge where the students of physical and ofnoral science meet together."

And, without denying the usefulness of that plan-like know