The combined ingenuity of the world has not surpassed this sentence as containing all the letters and most only once: "Quiz, Jack; thy frowns vex.-G. D. PLUMB."

If the riches of the Indies, says Fenelon, or the crowns of all the kingdoms of Europe, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love for reading, I would spurn them all.

The ancient Scandinavians employed an alphabet of letters formed principally of straight lines, which has been called Runic from an Icelandic word runa, meaning a furrow or line.

Charles V used to say that he would talk Spanish to the gods, Italian to ladies, French to men, German to soldiers, English to geese, Hungarian to horses, and Bohemian to the devil.

Cipher as a method of secret writing was known as early as the time of Julius Cæsar. It consisted of a transposition of the letters of the alphabet. The most complicated ciphers known can be translated by modern experts.

Taboo is a Polynesian word, signifying something set apart, either as sacred or accursed, clean or unclean, but in any case as a thing forbidden. All the law and morality of the Polynesians had their origin in the taboo or system of religious prohibitions.

The writing in use among the Arabs between the sixth and eleventh centuries, and, supposed to have been invented at Cufa, is called Cufic writing. Cufic coins are those of the Mohammedan sovereigns and are of great use in throwing light on the history of the East.

The longest words in the language, taken from the "Century Dictionary:" Suticonstitutionalist, Incomprehensibility, Philoprogenitiveness, Honorificibilitudinity, Anthropophagenarian, Disproportionableness, Velocipedestrianistical, Transubstantiationableness, Palatopharyngeolaryngeal.

The term Colophon applies to the inscription or monogram on the last page of a book, which in old times contained the author's and printer's names, date of publication, and so on. It is derived from the Greek phrase "to add a colophon," to put the finishing stroke to an engagement by a cavalry attack.

Outside of medical and technical terms the word "unexceptionableness" is, according to some lexicographers, the longest English word. "Incomprehensibility" has the same complement of letters, nineteen, but four of them are "i," and it would occupy less space in type than its sesquipedalian brother.

Americanisms are words or phrases peculiar to the United States. Many of them, however, are the renewal of old English words that have become obsolete in the mother country. Others have sprung into existence through the new conditions consequent in the rapid development of our western territory.

A sonnet is a poetic form, of Italian origin, used to express a single thought or single wave of emotion. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of fourteen lines, divided into an octave of two rhymes, and a sestet of two or three rhymes. The Shakspearian sonnet consists of six alternate rhymes clinched by a couplet.

In 1879, Johann Martin Schleyer, a Swabian pastor and latterly a teacher in Constance, invented the universal language called Volapük.

Of the vocabulary about one third is of English origin, while the Latin and the Romance languages furnish a fourth. The grammar is simplified to the utmost. The most practical disciples limit their aims to making Volapük a convenience for commercial correspondence, a kind of extended international code.

An anagram is the formation of a new word, phrase or sentence out of anothor by a transposition of the letters. To be effective the anagram must have the element of sarcasm, surprise or revelation involved. "Love to ruin" is an anagram for revolution, "sly ware" for lawyers, “a man to wield great wills" for William Ewart Gladstone.

Mac (contracted M') is a Gaelic prefix occurring frequently in Scottish names, as Macdonald, M'Lennan, and the like, meaning "son," "tribe" or "kin." It_corresponds to the son in names of Teutonic origin, as Davidson; the Fitz in Norman names, as Fitzherbert; the Irish O, as in O'Connell; and the Welsh Map, shortened into 'p or 'p, as Ap Richard, whence Prichard.

We find in a historical incident the true etymology of the term Laconisms. When Philip of Macedon wrote to the Spartan magistrates, "If I enter Laconia I will level Lacedæmon to the ground," the ephors wrote back the single word "If." Similarly, in 1490, Ō'Neill wrote to O'Donnel, "Send me the tribute, or else-;" to which O'Donnel returned answer, “I owe none, and if—.”

The Brogue (Irish and Gaelic brog) is a light shoe formed of one piece of hide or half-tanned leather, gathered round the ankle, which was formerly much in use among the native Irish and the Scottish Highlanders, and of which there were different varieties. Whence comes the term brogue signifying the peculiar pronounciation of English that distinguishes natives of Ireland.

An allegory is a "prolonged metaphor" or figurative representation conveying some moral or teaching. Of very early origin it is especially common among the Oriental people. It is of frequent occurrence in the Bible. In English literature there are many fine examples, among the most familiar of which are Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and Spenser's "Faerie Queen." The latter is a double allegory.

Among the puzzle-pastimes based on the alphabet a logogram is simply a complicated or multiplied form of the anagram, where the puzzle-monger, instead of contenting himself with the formation of a single new word or sentence out of the old by the transposition of the letters, racks his brain to discover all the words that may be extracted from the whole or from any portion of the letters, and throws the whole into a series of verses in which synonymic expressions for these words must be used.

Sanscrit is one of the Indo-European group of languages, intimately connected with the Persian, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Slavonian and Celtic languages. It is the classical language of the Hindus, and the parent of all the modern Aryan languages of India. It ceased to be a spoken language about the second century B. C. Sanscrit literature, which extends back to at least 1,500 B. C. and is very voluminous, was introduced to the western world by Sir Wm. Jones, who founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.

Our familiar and valuable friends, the letters of the common alphabet, are said to have originated in the hieroglyphic symbols of Egypt,

legendarily ascribed to Memnon, 1822 B. C. From the Egyptians and Assyrians the Phoenicians introduced the chief letters of the present alphabet. Cadmus is traditionally stated (149 B. C.) to have brought into Greece the Phoenician letters which ultimately became the basis of the present alphabet. The number of letters composing the alphabet varies among different nations. The true theory of an alphabet requires a single sign to represent each single sound.

When the Ephraimites, after their defeat by Jephthah, tried to pass the Jordan, a guard stationed on the banks of the river tested everyone who came to the ford by asking him to pronounce the word "Shibboleth" which the men of Ephraim called sibboleth. Everyone who said "sibboleth" was immediately cut down by the guard, and there fell in one day, 42,000 Ephraimites (Judges xii: 1-6). Hence arises the present meaning of the word as the test, criterion or watchword of a party.

To "speak for bunkum" is a common expression indicating bombast or mere show. The phrase no doubt owes it origin to the perseverance of an old mountainer, Felix Walter by name, representative in Congress from North Carolina, in whose district was the county of Buncombe. It was at the close of the famous debate on the Missouri Compromise. Mr. Walker rose to speak. The House was impatient and frequent calls for the "Question" were heard. Mr. Walker insisted, saying that he was bound to "speak for Bumcombe.'

The sixteen Greek letters, said to have been introduced into Thebes (in Boeotia) by Cadmus, son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, are called the Cadmean letters. The letters are a, b, g, d, e, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u. These letters were subsequently increased by eight Ionic letters, z, ē, th, x, ph, eh, ch, ps, and ō. Simoniêds of Cos is credited with the four letters th, z, ph, ch, and Epicharmos the Sicilian, with the four letters x, ē, ps, ō. The Ionians were the first to employ all the twenty-four letters, whence the eight added were called Ionic letters.

We use the term “bull” to describe a ridiculous blunder in speech implying a contradiction. Bulls in their best form are usually alleged to be an especial prerogative of Irishmen-at least it is certain that the best examples have come from Ireland. For instance, on a rustic Irishman being asked what a bull was he naively replied: "Whin ye see five cows lyin' down in a field the wan standin' up is a bull." The following sentence is also a good illustration: "All along the untrodden paths of the past we perceive the footprints of an unseen hand.”

Critics employ the term Bathos to designate a ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace in writing or speech, or a sinking below the ordinary level of thought in a ridiculous effort to aspire. It is of the essence of bathos that he who is guilty of it should be unconscious of his fall, and while groveling on the earth, should imagine that he is still cleaving the heavens. A good example of bathos is the well-known couplet: "And thou, Dalhousie, thou great god of war, Lieutenant-general to the Earl of Mar!"

or the well-known encomium of the celebrated Boyle: "Robert Boyle was a great man, a very great man; he was father of chemistry and brother to the Earl of Cork."

A dictionary is a book containing the words of a language alphabetically arranged, with their definitions and significations set forth more or less fully. It differs from a mere list or index, in that it contains

explanations about each word included within its scope, except where it is more convenient, by a cross-reference, to refer the reader for a part or the whole of the account of one word to what is said under some other word. There are several other terms that are used synonymously, or nearly so, with dictionary. The Greek word “lexicon" is in common use for a dictionary of languages.

CHIEF LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD.

Some estimate that there are over three thousand languages in the world; and above a thousand different religions, including what are called 'sects." English is spoken by above one hundred and thirty millions of the human race; German by one hundred millions; Russian by seventy millions; French by forty-five millions; Spanish by forty millions; Italian by thirty millions, and Portuguese by thirteen millions.

English is spoken by four million Canadians; over three and a half million West Indians; three million Australians; one million East Indians; thirty-eight millions in the British Isles, and sixty-three millions in America; besides Africa, Jamaica, etc.

German is spoken by two millions in the United States and Canada; two millions in Switzerland; forty thousand Belgiums; forty-six millions in the German empire, and ten millions in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

French is spoken by two and a quarter million Belgians; one million in the United States and Canada; one million in Algiers, India and Africa; six hundred thousand Swiss; six hundred thousand in Hayti; two hundred thousand in Alsace-Lorraine; and thirty-eight millions in France.

HOW TO SPEAK CORRECTLY.

There are several kinds of errors in speaking. The most objectionable are those in which words are employed that are unsuitable to convey the meaning intended. Thus, a person wishing to express his intention of going to a given place says, "I propose going," when, in fact, he purposes going. The following affords an amusing illustration of this class of error: A venerable matron was speaking of her son, who, she said, was quite stage-struck. "In fact," remarked the old lady, "he is going to a premature performance this evening!" Considering that most amateur performances are premature, it cannot be said that this word was altogether misapplied; though, evidently, the maternal intention was to convey a very different meaning.

Other errors arise from the substitution of sounds similar to the words that should be employed; that is, spurios words instead of genuine ones. Thus, some people say "renumerative" when they mean "remunerative." A nurse, recommending her mistress to have a perambulator for her child, advised her to purchase a preamputator!

Other errors are occasioned by imperfect knowledge of the English grammar; thus, many people say: "Between you and I," instead of "Between you and me." And there are numerous other departures from the rules of grammar, which will be pointed out hereafter.

MISUSE OF THE ADJECTIVE: What beautiful butter!" "What a nice landscape!" They should say: "What a beautiful landscape!" "What nice butter!" Again errors are frequently occasioned by the following causes ;

MISPRONUNCIATION OF WORDS: Many persons say pronounciation instead of pronunciation; others say pro-nun-ce-a-shun, instead of pronun-she-a-shun.

MISDIVISION OF WORDS AND SYLLABLES: This defect makes the words an ambassador sound like a nambassador, or an adder like a nadder. IMPERFECT ENUNCIATION, as when a person says hebben for heaven, ebber for ever, jocholate for chocolate.

To correct these errors by a systematic course of study would involve a closer application than most persons could afford, but the simple and concise rules and hints here given, founded upon usage and the authority of scholars, will be of great assistance to inquirers.

Who and whom are used in relation to persons, and which in relation to things. But it was once common to say, "the man which." This should now be avoided. It is now usual to say, "Our Father who art in heaven;" instead of " which art in heaven."

Whose is, however, sometimes applied to things as well as persons. We may therefore say, "The country whose inhabitants are free."

Thou is employed in solemn discourse and you in common language. Ye (plural) is also used in serious addresses, and you in familiar language.

The uses of the word it are various, and very perplexing to the uneducated. It is not only used to imply persons, but things, and even ideas, and therefore in speaking or writing, its assistance is constantly required. The perplexity respecting this word arises from the fact that in using it in the construction of a long sentence, sufficient care is not taken to insure that when it is employed it really points out or refers to the object intended. For instance, “It was raining when John set out in his cart to go to market, and he was delayed so long that it was over before he arrived." Now what is to be understood by this sentence? Was the rain over? or the market? Either or both might be inferred from the construction of the sentence, which, therefore, should be written thus: "It was raining when John set out in his cart to go to market, and he was delayed so long that the market was over before he arrived."

Rule. After writing a sentence always look through it, and see that wherever the word it is employed, it refers to or carries the mind back to the object which it is intended to point out.

The general distinction between this and that may be thus defined: this denotes an object present or near, in time or place; that something which is absent.

These refers, in the same manner, to present objects, while those refers to things that are remote.

Who changes, under certain conditions, into whose and whom; but that and which always remain the same, with the exception of the possessive case, as noted above.

That may be applied to nouns or subjects of all sorts; as the girl that went to school, the dog that bit me, the opinion that he entertains. The misuse of these pronouns gives rise to more errors in speaking and writing than any other cause.

When you wish to distinguish between two or more persons, say, "Which is the happy man?" not who—“ Which of those ladies do you admire?" "Who do you

Instead of "Whom do you think him to be?" say, think him to be?"