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people, vegetation, etc., in different parts of the earth, making a little preparation for future lessons on those subjects, would conclude this introductory course.

These preparatory lessons should be completed at the age of eight or nine. The pupil would then be prepared to use successfully the globe and maps as the objects of study, and to enter at once on the course indicated in the former article.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS.

EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR ADMISSION TO THE FALL RIVER HIGH SCHOOL, MAY, 1865.

ARITHMETIC.

1. Two-fifths of of what number equals six-sevenths of 10.5 ?

2. Find the sum of the following numbers: 5 thousand and 5; 7 thousand, and seven hundred-thousandths; 3 million and 3, and 30 thousand and 3 millionths. From this sum subtract 12 thousand, and 3 thousand and 7 hundred-thousandths. 3. If $4 will pay for 25 3-5 melons, how many melons will $4 1-6 pay for? 4. Multiply four hundredths by .9, divide the product by 36 ten thousandths. What is .25 of the quotient?

5. Bought a cask of oil. One-fourth of it leaked out. I sold the remainder at an advance of 25 per cent. on its cost. Did I gain or lose on the investment, and what per cent.?

6. If a block of wood 6 ft. long, 1.5 ft. wide, and 1 3-7 ft. thick, weighs 771 3-7 lbs., how much will a block of wood eight feet long, 1 5-9 feet wide, and 1.75 feet thick weigh?

7. Bought pears at the rate of 2 for 3 cents, and sold them at the rate of 7 for 9 cents. What per cent. was gained?

The seller

pay the bill. per cent. per

8. Bought $1500 worth of goods; payment to be made in 4 mos. offered to deduct 5 per cent. for cash, and I hired money of a friend to At the end of 4 mos. I paid the borrowed money with interest at 13 year. Did I gain or lose by hiring the money, and how many dollars ? 9. How many yards of carpeting five-fourths of a yd. wide will be required to carpet a room 39 feet wide and 51 ft, long?

10. From a field 50 rods square I sold A 120 sq. rods, B 4 acres, and C a piece 30 rods square. What part of the field did I sell?

GRAMMAR,

1. Define Orthgraphy, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody.

2. Write the plural of hero, canto, duty, money, fly, valley, knife, chief.

3. What is Analysis? Parsing?

4. When are nouns in the independent case?

5. Write the principal parts of the verbs-make, beset, chide, cling, sit, set, slay, lay, lead. What kind of a verb is the latter?

6. Compare far, narrow, circular, thin, ill, and wooden,

7. Correct the following, if any are incorrect:

They that honor me I will honor. I knew it was him who done it, and

I expect he committed the deed carelessly.

8. Analyze the following sentence: Let him who hears say come.

7. Write the feminine forms of nephew, actor, youth, Jew, host, infant, hero,

wizard.

10. Parse the italicised words in the following sentences:

(a.) He has more than he knows what to do with.

(b.) From all save that o'er which the soul bears sway,
There breathes but one record-passing away.

GEOGRAPHY.

1. What direction is the North Pole from Washington? San Francisco from Washington? The North Pole from San Francisco? Why?

2. Define Latitude, Longitude. What places have no Latitude?

have no Longitude? What place has neither?

3. Bound Michigan, Brazil, Arabia.

What places

4. In what State and what part of the State is Chatanooga? Lynchburg? Gettysburg? Antietam ? Where did Gen. Lee surrender?

5. Load a vessel at New Orleans for Liverpool; thence to Smyrna; thence to Boston. Name the various articles taken as freight at the different ports, and mention, in order, the several waters through which the vessel would sail.

6. Name and locate the six largest cities in the United States. In the world.

7. What circumstances determine the climate of any country?

8. Mention the rainless regions of the globe. Why are they rainless? What places have the greatest amount of rain, and why?

9. What are the Trade Winds? What causes them? Within what limits do they blow, and what direction do they take?

10. On the 23d of June who have the longer day, the inhabitants of Boston or of the City of Mexico? Boston or London ?

PENNSYLVANIA. The legislature of the Keystone State has done a noble act in assuming the guardianship of the destitute orphan children of her soldiers and sailors who have fallen in war. Provision is made for furnishing them with homes and instruction in boarding schools, and in some of the benevolent institutions, as Orphans' Homes, till they arrive at the age of sixteen years, when, at the request of themselves or friends, they may be apprenticed for the remainder of their minority. Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, formerly State Superintendent of Public Instruction, editor of the Pennslyvania School Journal, is superintendent of the enterprise, and in his hands this important labor of love and gratitude to these "children of the Republic" will be faithfully and wisely discharged.

Girard College for Orphans, in Philadelphia, now numbers five hundred and sixtythree pupils,--an increase of more than three hundred since 1860.—Ohio Educational Monthly.

RESIDENT EDITORS' DEPARTMENT.

THE AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER NUMBERS OF THE SCHOOLMASTER will be issued in one number. All articles or advertisements should be received by the 20th of August.

THE POSSESSIVE AUGMENT.

We had occasion the other day, in talking to a class in English Literature, to use the expression, "A friend of Bacon's." An inquisitive pupil, at the close of the exercise, asked: What is the difference between the two forms, "A friend of Bacon's," and "A friend of Bacon "? We chanced to be reading, about that time, an interesting paper in the Transactions of the Philological Society, on the character and origin of the Possessive Augment, which furnished an answer to this inquiry; and as this paper is not accessible to the readers of THE SCHOOLMASTER, we will here reproduce the reply which it furnished us.

The

The letter "s" with an apostrophe, added to a noun, imparts to it a proprietary or possessory quality, leaving the relation in which that noun stands to the rest of the sentence to be otherwise ascertained, generally by the help of a preposition. prepositional genitive case is somewhat vague and indeterminate; the "s" with the apostrophe, however, expresses the distinct and special relation of the possessor to the thing possessed, e. g., Mr. Dixon, who wrote a few years sinee a defence of Lord Bacon, would be called “a friend of Bacon"; here the relation is that of the objective genitive. Hobbes, of Malmesbury, who was associated with the great philosopher and translated some of his works, would be called "a friend of Bacon's;" here the relation is subjective. The same difference appears in the expressions "a picture of the king," and "a picture of the king's." So, too, the pronouns "our" and "ours," "their and "theirs," express a kindred distinction. The first of each of these pairs is a genitive form, not necessarily denoting possession; the second, exhibiting the augment, denotes proprietorship; e. g., we should say to the occupants of a house of which we were the owners, Your house, i. e., the house you occupy, is not yours, it is ours." My" and "thy" in like manner express the more indeterminate relation. To give them the power of expressing the possessory relation, we add instead of "s" a representation of "own," making them "mine" and "thine." This is the origin of the vulgarisms "ourn," "yourn," "hisn." They have taken an authorized possessive augment.

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Of course this possessive augment "s" should be added to those nouns only which denote objects capable of possessing. In good English it is therefore limited to persons and to personified objects. In plain prose we should say “the queen of England" rather than " England's queen," because we do not in an ordinary state of mind regard the State as a person.

The paper to which we referred at the outset considers this "s" of the possessive as pronominal in its origin, and as representing at present the word "his." More commonly it is said to be a relic of the inflected genitive case of one of the AngloSaxon declensions. Archbishop Trench has rendered the latter view familiar to us by his discussion of it, in his " English Past and Present." He affirms that "s"

cannot represent "his," because though we may suppose our ancestors to have said "the king [hi]s countenance," we cannot suppose them also to have said "the queen [hi]s countenance." He ridicules Addison for saying that "s" represents "his" or "her." But the writer in the Philological Society's paper shows by numerous instances, that "his" early took the place of the Anglo-Saxon inflection of the genitive, where possession was to be indicated, and that "his' was used after feminine nouns in such circumstances as readily as after masculine; e. g., Gwenayfer his love," "Mistress Barnes his daughter," in a MS. of the thirteenth century. The pronominal view seems to be as well supported as the other, and to offer some advantages for explaining some of our idioms.

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R. P. D.

GUYOT'S WALL MAPS.

THE day is not distant when broader views of the study of Geography will be entertained by those who desire to keep pace with the march of improvement which is being made in this important branch of science. The great fact that the natural features of the earth should first be introduced to the mind of children is attracting the attention of all our best teachers. The physical geography of the world is the foundation of all our knowledge, even of civil geography, and they should be studied in the order of their true relation if we would grasp the significance of the science. But of what use to the teacher is a knowledge of the true method of presenting geopraphical truths unless he is furnished the means of presenting them to his pupils? He must be furnished with suitable means to illustrate the great physical features of the earth, or all his statements must be useless to his pupils. We have long needed maps with which to make its physical formation easily comprehended by the children.

We are happy to say that this want has been met by Prof. Guyot, in his truly elegant and accurate Wall Maps. By means of these we are enabled to make very great and important advancement in teaching Geography. We doubt if in any other science so much improvement has been made in the method of instruction as will be effected when these maps are brought into use and thoroughly understood by teachers. When we look at Guyot's Map of the World, and see how beautifully is presented to the eye the great physical features of the earth, we wonder that any knowledge could ever have been given by the means we have heretofore used. One lesson would give more true information to a class than could be obtained by the means which have been used by teachers, in a year. We have been delighted with the Map of the World, and our pupils are happy when we question them in regard to it, because they see with the physical eye what before was nearly hidden from the mind. All such instruction must come to children through sight. Perhaps the Map of the World is the most important one from which to give the pupil the great leading truths of Geography. Guyot's Map of the World is truly a pleasing one to look upon, and it shows at once all the more important facts relating to the earth. The shapes of all the lands and oceans are distinctly and relatively brought to view. The positive,

real and comparative height of all the mountain systems of the world are easily and clearly shown. We cannot enumerate here all the essential points which are admirably brought out by means of this map, but we are sure that we do the cause of science and the cause of popular education a duty by saying all we can to aid their

introduction. Prof. Guyot has made for himself a fame that will endure as long as time.

The publishers have executed the equalled in this or any other country. New York, are the publishers.

ideas of the Professor in a style not to be Charles Scribner & Co., 124 Grand street,

WE have received the Superintendent's Report of the Common Schools of North Providence. It contains many valuable hints to teachers, parents and trustees. It is gratifying to know that the schools are in a prosperous condition. Earnest labor on your part, friend Robbins, will bring your schools up to a high standard. We commend the following hints to teachers:

“All that may be said of parents visiting schools, and a familiar acquaintance, will apply equally to teachers. Let the work be reciprocal, and the highest good is the result. As teachers are interested in their work, so will they interest their pupils and stimulate them in such a manner as to bring parents into the schoolroom. Seek to make the pupil feel by your interest in his welfare that you are, next to his parent, his best friend. Take every means and opportunity to perfect yourself in your profession, by taking and reading the educational journals of the day and making frequent visits to other schools, that you may be refreshed and stimulated to greater usefulness in imparting instruction in your own. And above all, look to the MORALS of your pupils. Never had a teacher a better opportunity or more occasion to impress upon the minds of those under his charge, his moral obligations to his Maker, to those around him, and his loyalty to his country. See that you improve the opportunity."

WE have tasted the mineral water of many of the celebrated springs of our country and spent a considerable sum of money in travelling to find health and strength, but we must confess that we have found in our own city the coolest and most invigorating mineral water that we have seen. We had been troubled with severe headache till we began to drink Kissengen and since that we have been entirely free from it. If you wish to drink the pure water of the Kissengen Spring of Germany, call at Field's, No. 205 Westminster street, corner of Union, Providence, R. I.

WE would call the attention of teachers and committees to S. R. Urbino's advertisement of French books. Perhaps no publisher in this country has taken so much pains to furnish for the use of schools and students of French the best text-books and general French literature as Mr. Urbino. He is a thorough French scholar himself and knows just what is needed for our students. He will furnish books on the most liberal terms. Any communications addressed S. R. Urbino, 13 School street, Boston, Mass., will be promptly answered.

MRS. LOUISA W. CRAWFORD has presented to the New York Central Park, eightyseven casts in plaster of the works of her husband, the celebrated sulptor.

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