the small quantity of snow that had fallen. ger and goods trains; on the means of utilizing But in other respects we did not escape: the the products of the distillation of coal, so as fierce gales occasioned disasters round the to reduce the price of coke. Then we have coast; in Norfolk, the sea in two or three the processes of iron manufacture, and steamplaces regained its place upon reclaimed engines and superheated steam; so that any lands, and extraordinarily high tides pushed competent person having knowledge and exthe salt water so far up the rivers that it reached some of the inland Broads, and killed thousands of fish, which were afterwards seen floating on the surface.

From The Press.

A Dictionary of English Etymology. By
Hensleigh Wedgwood, M.A. Vol. II.
London: Trübner and Co.

perience to communicate, may now send in his paper to the Institution above named. The highest premium is twenty-five guincas. Among the papers to be read at the United Bank-note forgeries, if provocative of in- Service Institution, we notice one on "The genuity on the wrong side, do also inspire Means for Scientific Physical Training, and ingenuity on the right side; and now a new on Rational Gymnastics; " another "On the method of engraving and printing bank- Formation of Bars at the Mouths of Rivers;" notes is announced, which is said to accom- on "British Columbia and Vancouver's Islplish all that can be desired as regards and ;" on "A Proposed Plan for a wholly security. The printing is so curiously in- Iron-made Armor-plated Vessel; " and on terlaced, the black with another color, that "The Future of Naval Attack and Defence." copying by photography is impossible. The ornamental part of the plates is engraved from an arbitrary matrix of very intricate design, obtained by transposition after the manner of a kaleidoscope. No engraver could imitate or reproduce such a plate unless he were in possession of the matrix, which would seem to render forgery impossible; for a banker has only to hold possession of the matrix from which his own notes were engraved, in order to defeat any schemes of imitation that may be attempted. In a busy commercial community such as ours, a method which offers security to bankers will no doubt receive consideration; and it is probable that something might be made of the practical suggestions put forward by the late A. Bradbury, whose handsomely illustrated volume showed to what admirable perfection the mechanism for engraving had been brought. The Institution of Civil Engineers have issued their annual list of subjects for premiums. It contains forty-three articles, some Language is a living thing. The writer of which have been suggested by the disas- who works with it often finds that he has trous tidal irruption into the fen country unconsciously produced beautiful and feliciabove Lynn last year. For example, one of tous phrases, due less to his own genius than the subjects, stripped of details, is a history of to the fertility of his material. Earl Russell the successive changes of any fresh-water once remarked, in his sententious way, that channel; another is a history of any tidal river a proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit or estuary; on the modifications of the tidal of one; concerning language it may be said wave in its passage upwards; on the construc- that it is the concentrated wisdom and wit tion of dams, docks, and harbors. Another and poetry of millions. Every word was at class of subjects takes in the building of sus- first a poem. Every word is now a history. pension-bridges, boring of tunnels, drainage, As the gold in a sovereign of Victoria's may sewage, and water-works; on the construction have formed a part of some unknown coin of railway carriages and wagons, with a view to the reduction of the gross weight of passen

FEW books are so readable as a good dictionary. A folio "Johnson" has always been a favorite resource on a wet day; and all men acquainted with literature are aware how much entertainment may be found in the quaint pages of Bailey, and in Dr. Richardson's exhaustive volumes. Exhaustive-no; the epithet is ill-chosen. The sources of language are inexhaustible; its fountains possess perennial flow. Mr. Wedgwood's book shows clearly that, with all the achievements of his predecessors, he has found much to do. Well has he done it; and upon a foggy December day we should desire no better amusement than that which his volumes afford.

that was current in Thebes or Troy, so the word which the English peasant uses has in

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other shapes been syllabled by men who are among clouds. The initials gl and g are frenow mummies in Egyptian catacombs, or quently equivalent: and glade is identical whose bodies were burnt by the margin of with the Danish gade, a street. "Gout" is Homer's immortal sea. If only we could from gutta, a drop; not indicating that the call up the circumstances under which any sufferer has been in the habit of taking a given word was suddenly coined, how mar-drop too much, but derived from the old vellous would be the picture! If only we medical theory which attributed disease to could trace any word from its origin to this the settling of a drop of morbid humor on the day-as it passed over the lips of a hundred part affected. "Heathen" has no ethnic. nations-how amazing the history! The derivation, but comes from the Gothic haithi, most perspicacious etymologist can but guess, the open country, being equivalent to pagȧvaguely and uncertainly; yet his guesses nus. "Hoyden," a word formerly applied suffice to construct a science and to furnish to both sexes, is another form of heathen. intellectual entertainment second to none. Hospital" and "hotel" are identical, A few of the etyma in this volume, which though the two words have come to indicate ranges from E to P, may interest the reader, two very different kinds of hospitia. "Huge" though taken at random. "Eglantine " is a is derived from the interjection ugh! (from charming word beloved by the poets; con- ug, to shudder) and means, so great as to nect it with aiguille, a needle, and we see how cause terror. "Junket," a Devonshire sylthe prickly sweetbrier won its name. " Farm" labub, is from the Italian giuncata, a creamis from the Anglo-Saxon feorm, a supper: cheese served upon rushes. "Laundress" is rents were originally paid by supplying the lavanderess, from the Italian lavanda, soaplord with so many nights' entertainment for suds: hence "lavender "is the name given his household, as appears by Domesday Book to the favorite herb for perfuming clean linen. and other ancient records: and eventually" Lizard Point" in Cornwall gets its name the word which indicated rent was trans- from having been a place of retirement for ferred to the land itself. "Fers" is a word for the queen at chess, found in Chaucer: the Persian was ferz, a general-the old French fierge; and this last seems to have been corrupted into vierge-whence queen. "Franchise" and "Frank" come from those Franks who conquered Gaul; and, in charters of the year 799, ingenuus, nobilis, and francus are synonyms. "Garret "hear"Maroon" is chestnut color, from the French this, ye authors who write in airy solitudes-marron: so we suppose the heroine of Tennyis from the French garite, the strongest and son's idyl, "The Brook," had maroon hair. last-entered part of a fortress. "Gazette" has been derived from gazzetta, a coin of Venice worth less than a farthing; it comes in reality from gazza, a magpie, whence also the" Marry" is from the French mari, and French jaser. We presume that the souls of properly should be used of women only, as it editors pass into magpies; and that when, means to join to a husband. Platform," as riding or driving along some pleasant country used in America to signify a political prosroad, we hear the cacophonous screams of pectus, is really older English than our own those mischievous birds, they are vainly at- sense of it: thus Sharp writes of "God's tempting to tell us the latest news. "Girl" pattern or platform of his dealings with all has nothing to do with the Latin gerula, as the nations of the world," and Bacon of fanciful etymologists have held, but is con- "the platform of the conspiracy." nected with the Low German gör, a child, We have made extracts enough to show that and was formerly applied to children of both Mr. Wedgwood's work is as entertaining as Neither is "Glade" from gladius, as it is useful. It deserves a place in every meaning a clear space in a wood cut with library and when complete will be without swords for the passage of an army-but is a rival among English dictionaries of pure: cognate with the Norse glette, a clear spot etymology.

sexes.

lazars; which latter word is derived from
Lazarus in the parable. "Manure" and
" manœuvre are identical-manu operare:
and, in old English, to manure signified to
occupy.. Thus Warner-

"The first manured Western ile
By Cham and Japhet's race."

"In gloss and hue the chestnut, when the shell

Divides threefold to show the fruit within.”

From The London Review.

With rare prudence, however, she refrained A FEMALE RAGGED SCHOOL IN EGYPT. * on all occasions from directly assailing the MISS WHATELY had visited Egypt once be- Mohammedan faith, and rather strove to asfore, as an ordinary tourist; but she went sure her Moslem hearers that our Book, since there again, and lived for a twelvemonth in they hold it as an axiom that a true Religion her own hired house at Cairo, for the pur- must be founded on a book, contains the full pose of establishing a day-school, in which histories of Joseph, Moses, David, and Jesus. plain needlework and the reading of the who are venerated as prophets by every true Bible might be taught to the poor little girls disciple of Mecca. When asked if she wanted of that city. The result of her labors and to make Christians of them, she replied with observations is put before us, in a very unaf- a touch of evangelical diplomacy, that she fected and pleasing manner, in this little was not able to do so; that to make Chrisbook. Since "The Englishwoman in Egypt," tians was beyond any human power, but that we have not had such a glimpse into the do- she would show them the truth, and leave mestic life of the native population there. God's word to operate on their minds,-since Miss Whately really lived quite among them, it was one great point in her favor, that the and sought by neighborly kindness to per- Mohammedans are taught to regard both the suade them to trust her with their children. Old and New Testament with reverence, as Her chief assistance was from a Syrian Chris- preliminary to the Koran. Miss Whately's tian family who occupied the lower story of harmless stratagems to make the people acher house. The mother, Um Usuf, or quainted with the New Testament may pro"Mother of Joseph," entering very readily voke a smile, but would have been an inexinto Miss Whately's plan, went round with cusable deception if its reading had been her into the lanes and alleys of the quarter forbidden to them. It is pleasant to see how to canvass for scholars, while the eldest she bribed the professional story-teller to redaughter, Menni, was teacher and Arabic cite, in a public coffee-house, the parables of reader; Miss Whately, who knew only a few Christ instead of the popular tale of “ Abou words of the language to begin with, super- Hassan's Slippers," while the missionary intending the school. Before the twelve- ladies, from their own windows on the oppomonth was out, she was able to talk pretty site side of the narrow street, listened for the freely, both to the children who were gath- well-known words of St. Matthew's Gospel, ered in, and to their parents whom she vis- to make sure that he had faithfully performed ited at home. A Syrian lady, Mrs. R- his bargain. A scene of deep interest is that who seems to have been an educated person, of one evening on board a Nile boat, where the wife of a European settled at Cairo, some- the simple boatmen, waiting in idleness, after times accompanied Miss Whately in going they got tired of their rude songs and dances, amongst the people. With all this, it may were entertained by the strange lady with still be imagined that the difficulties of open- the reading of "stories," being those of the ing confidential intercourse with the motley lost sheep, the lost piece of silver, and the folk of Egyptians, Moslem and Copt, the prodigal son. They heard all this, followed Bedouin Arabs, Syrians, Turks, and others, by the Ten Commandments and the fourth who came in her way, must have been ex- chapter of St. John, with earnest attention; tremely formidable; and the cleverness with after which, one old white-bearded man, which she got through this courageous enter-"who seemed to have the spirit of a little prise, though she herself may not think much child, lowly and ready to learn," looked up of it, will rather surprise the home-staying at her, with a touchingly wistful expression, reader. But we know that a good will can go a good way; Miss Whately found the power to talk, when called upon to explain her proceedings, in the presence of thirteen or fourteen Moslem grown-up persons, because she had something which she earnestly desired to say to them.

Ragged Life in Egypt. By M. L. Whately. Seeley, Jackson, & Halliday.

and said, “What shall I do? I cannot read, and you will soon go; I hear no more of this; how am I to know what God would have me do?" None of us can refuse to join in Miss Whately's hope that, from these few attempts of hers to scatter amongst an ignorant race the seeds of a purer morality and of a more spiritual faith than that of the

Koran, some good fruits, though unobserved, ever she could get away from household may grow.

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drudgery, her husband being absent with his donkey on errands of trade, she would come to the foreign lady's house, " and bounce in with an air of joyous triumph," kiss Miss Whately's hands, then run to wash her own, pulling off her handkerchief to show that her plaited hair was neat, and, settling down in a corner, repeat the lessons in which she delighted. Overhearing a conversation, in which Miss Whately assured the suspicious women that her only motive for opening this school was her love for the children whom she would try to benefit, poor Shoh anxiously whispered to Menni, pointing at Miss Whately, "Does she love me?" It was impossible to resist all this, and we do not wonder that the eager, affectionate girl became a special favorite. "Ya habeeby, oh, yes, my dear, certainly I do love you, Shoh, and all of you. I want you to go to Heaven with me! replied the good English lady; at which declaration we can fancy how those wild Egyptian girls, having never heard the like of it in their lives before, opened their great black eyes, and stared at the friendly speaker, as though an angel had visited them from some brighter and happier sphere.

One serious obstacle to her special work of instructing the native girls was the notion of Mohammedans that the souls of women are essentially inferior and unworthy of cultivation. To this prejudice, one of the most pernicious features of Eastern superstition, the vices of their social life are in a great measure due. Polygamy, indeed, is seldom practised by the lower classes; but the denial of female education, attended by the monstrous custom of disposing of mere children in marriage, has most degrading and distressing effects. We are told, for instance, of a little creature eleven years old, "neither in looks nor.manners at all older than girls of that age among city children of the poor in England," being espoused to a lad of fifteen for a bridal gift of fourpence, which she spent in buying sweetmeats, and got a beating from her mother for so doing; in the very week before this she had stayed away from school in a huff, because another girl had torn off the arms of her doll! This shocking haste of parents to get rid of their daughters by premature matrimony is owing, perhaps, in many cases, to their scanty house accommodation; for poor Salhah, the child-wife just These touches of true humanity, which mentioned, is seen, in one of the woodcuts abound in Miss Whately's narrative, give to from Miss Whately's drawings which illus- her little book an interest even for those who trate her book, actually seated upon the roof may not reckon on much positive outward sucof a small hovel about the size of an English cess of missionary schools in Egypt. "She pigstye, in which her mother crouches, with kissed my child!" exclaimed a fond mother, no room to spare, while the father smokes on returning from her first interview with the his pipe outside, and the little ones crawl in stranger who had come, for such incredible the mire. One young matron, whose frank objects of Christian philanthropy, to dwell and confiding disposition soon gained Miss amidst the neglected poor in a Moslem quarWhately's heart, was Shoh, i.e., Ardently ter of Cairo; it seemed wonderful to those Beloved," not fifteen years of age, and still lowly people that anybody, most of all, that a victim of a maternal as well as of a conju- a Frank and a Sill or “ lady" should care for gal tyranny which moved the author's com- them. "I believe you love God, for you love passion. On her first visit to the school, the children," said the Turkish milliner, Sitt leading in her little sister, she stood listening Haanem, or Mrs. Haanem, as we might call and smiling, but thought herself, perhaps, hér, as she sat, smoking and directing her too much of a woman to join the A B C class; work-girls, when Miss Whately called upon she came, however, again and again, with a her. This logic could scarcely be disputed in dirty baby and a lot of oranges; till one day, the case of one who was approaching, in the fired with a sudden resolution, she put the name of Christ, the hearts of an alien and baby on the floor, presented the oranges to jealous population, with the gentle entreaty, the teacher; and, scating herself on the mat "Suffer your little children to come, and forat Miss Whately's feet, seized an alphabet- bid them not.” Indeed, the mothers somecard, and began to pronounce the letters, times feared that Miss Whately might be too that she might learn to read with the busy fond of their children, and carry them off to little maids around her. Poor Shoh! when- England. She exclaimed indignantly, at this

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE.

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