with lest; as, "You must remain within doors during rain, lest you catch cold."

Than: this conjunction is used after the comparative degree of an adjective; as, “You are taller than your brothers." "As to the word than," says Latham, 66 the conjunction of comparison, it is another form of then, the notions of order, sequence, and comparison being allied. This is good, then (or next in order) that is good, is an expression sufficiently similar to This is better than that, to have given rise to it; and in Scotch and certain provincial dialects we actually find than instead of then." It is hard to quarrel with such respectable authority, yet one cannot help asking, if then and than be convertible terms, where is the necessity for a comparative degree at all? The word than, as then, expressing merely sequence or order, the expression, "You are tall, then my brother," is evidently sufficient for the purpose.

That: on this word as a conjunction, see Observation 3, on the Relative Pronouns.

ON THE INTERJECTION.

=

=

AN interjection (inter between, and jectus thrown,) is a word used to express some sudden desire or emotion of the speaker or writer; as, Alas! Ah! The name interjection appears applied to this class of words from their occupying a kind of parenthetical position in the sentence. Interjections have no immediate connection with any part of a sentence; they make no affirmation, and do not exercise any influence on the construction of a sentence. 66 They are wholly independent," says Latham, "of propositions, as much as the hiss of a snake or the groan of a wounded animal; expressions of which we infer the meaning, but expressions as to the meaning whereof we are not informed in the way that we are informed by propositions."

The following is a list of interjections, and combined words used as interjections ::

Derive the term conjunction. What is its office? Give examples of a conjunction used to connect individual words. Also two propositions. Resolve the following into two propositions:- "Draco and Solon endeavoured to restore order at Athens." Of what use are conjunctions? How far are they like prepositions? How far unlike? What is the characteristic of the conjunction as distinguished from the preposition? Shew the difference as to connecting powers between the preposition and conjunction, from the example furnished in the following sentence "Carbon is insoluble in water, and infusible by the most intense heat; it combines with oxygen, and produces a gas called carbonic acid." Subdivide the conjunctions. What is the essential difference between the copulative and disjunctive conjunction? Mention other conjunctions. Construct sentences in which although, though, still, yet, will be properly applied. Also, if, unless. Shew that as, because, for, since, are sometimes equivalents in meaning, by constructing a sentence in which any one of them may be used for the remainder. When is lest used? Give an example. What is Latham's theory on the conjunction than after a comparative? What objection may be urged against it? When is that a conjunction? What sort of words is called interjections? Derive the term. Why is it applied to this class? What is the characteristic of the interjection? Mention the principal interjections.

The following is a specimen of simple parsing, that is, of parsing as far as the classification of words is concerned, without involving their syntactical connection and government: -"Well! exclaimed a young lady, just returned from school, my education is at last finished, indeed it would be strange, if, after five years' hard application, any

thing were left incomplete. Happily all is now done, and I have nothing to do but exercise my various accomplishments."

Well, an interjection; exclaimed, an active intransitive verb, indicative mood, imperfect tense; a, an indefinite numeral adjective; young, an adjective of quality; lady, a noun common, feminine gender, singular number; just, an adverb modifying returned; returned, a participial adjective; from, a preposition; school, a noun common, neuter gender, singular number; my, a pronominal adjective; education, a noun common, neuter gender, singular number; is finished, a passive verb, present tense, indicative mood; at last, an adverbial phrase; indeed, an adverb; it, a personal pronoun, singular number; would be, a verb, potential mood, imperfect tense; strange, an adjective; if, a conjunction; after, a preposition; five, a cardinal numeral adjective; years', a noun common, neuter gender, plural number, possessive case; hard, an adjective; application, a noun common, singular number, neuter gender; any, an indefinite numeral adjective; thing, a noun, neuter gender, singular number; were left, a verb, subjunctive mood, imperfect tense; incomplete, an adjective; happily, an adverb; all, an indefinite numeral adjective; is done, a passive verb, indicative mood, present tense; now, an adverb; and, a conjunction; I, a personal pronoun, first person, singular number, common gender; have, a verb active, transitive, indicative mood, present tense; nothing, a noun common, singular number, neuter gender; to do, a verb active, transitive, infinitive mood, present tense; but, an adverb (equivalent to only); exercise, a verb, active transitive, infinitive mood (to exercise), present tense; my, a pronominal adjective; various, an adjective; accomplishments, a noun common, plural number, neuter gender.

According to the foregoing plan, parse the following sentence:" Alas! exclaimed a silver-headed sage, how narrow is the utmost extent of human knowledge! I have spent my life in acquiring knowledge, but how little do I know! The farther I attempt to penetrate the secrets of nature, the more I am bewildered and benighted. Beyond a certain limit, all is but conjecture, so that the advantage of the learned over the ignorant consists greatly in having ascertained how little is to be known."

ON DERIVATION.

THE word derivation, from de=down, and rivus=a river or stream, is used to express that act whereby words are traced to their original source. It has been already stated that it is a question amongst philosophers not yet settled, whether or not the gift of language was originally conferred on man by inspiration, or the knowledge thereof acquired by the process of invention and subsequent gradual improvement. By far the greater number of respectable authorities-and amongst these, divines especiallylean towards the former opinion; and Bishop Magee has ingeniously contrived to shew that in such a gift a twofold miracle was involved: first, that whereby language itself was imparted; and secondly, that whereby the power to use it appropriately was conferred, without the necessity, on Adam's part, to acquire such power by the tedious process of experience, a miracle similar to that performed by the Saviour on the blind man, whereby he first received the gift of vision, and afterwards the power accurately to estimate distances,-a power which the detailed circumstances attending the miracle prove he did not at first receive, and which, under ordinary circumstances, it would take a lifetime to acquire.

However that be, it is evident that at a very early period of the world's history the language of the human family had become exceedingly diversified, and that there scarcely exists any modern European language which does not owe, in one way or another, a large proportion of its words, first to a Gothic, and secondly to a Classical original. Of this mention has been already made in that part of this treatise which discussed the history of the English language:

Words are but arbitrary signs whereby men express their ideas one to another; that is, they have no force or significancy in themselves, but derive their entire meaning from the consent of men to use such and such words to convey such and such ideas; the words house, tree, heat, for instance, do not, of themselves, convey the idea which

men represent by their aid, and are merely signs of a certain idea annexed to them in the English language. From this it would appear to follow, that the learning of a word, and the idea it stands for, is all that is necessary to the proper use thereof; and that, therefore, the study involved in acquiring a knowledge of its original source is superfluous, and, as such, not to be entered on without a sacrifice of time. Nothing, however, could be farther from the truth. The exercise of tracing words to their source, and finding out the primary idea attached to them from such source, and the process of transition from the primary to the secondary meaning, not only facilitates the more correct knowledge and use thereof, but conduces to the calling into exercise, and thereby strengthening, the reasoning faculties.

The man who merely knows that callous means "hardhearted," differs very much, in regard of the amount of his knowledge, from him who, knowing that it is derived from the Latin word signifying the hard skin produced by exercise, begins to inquire how it is that a word of such original import is used to express the idea for which it stands in the English language; and by such inquiry finds out that in this as well as numerous other instances, words which literally apply to some property of matter, are, by an easy transition, from the similarity of what takes place, applied to express also some operation of the mind.

It has always, accordingly, been the study of the linguist to endeavour to arrive at a knowledge of the original sources of individual words, and the causes which have, from time to time, whether from caprice or change of habit, operated in producing a particular application of a word, in some instances different from, and in others apparently opposed to the application which would naturally attach to it by reason of its original.

The Celtic, the Gothic, and Norman-French have supplied a large bulk of the words of the English language; of what kind and in what proportions, has been already discussed. In later times, from the taste for classical literature which was universally spread amongst men of literature during, and subsequent to the reign of the first of