groups of animals. The following is a list of the terms which have been applied to the various classes:

A covey of patridges.

A nide of pheasants.

A wisp of snipe.

A flight of doves or swallows.

A muster of peacocks.

A siege of herons.

A building of rooks.

A brood of grouse.

A plump of wild fowl.

A stand of plovers.

A watch of nightingales.

A clattering of cloughs.

A flock of geese.

A herd or bunch of cattle.

A bevy of quails.

A cast of hawks.

A trip of dottrell.
A swarm of bees.
A school of whales.
A shoal of herrings.
A herd of swine.
A skulk of foxes.
A pack of wolves.
A drove of oxen.
A sounder of hogs.
A troop of monkeys.

A pride of lions.

A sleuth of bears.

A gang of elk.

GUIDE TO CORRECT PRONUNCIATION.

Accent is a particular stress or force of the voice upon certain sylla bles or words. This mark in printing denotes the syllable upon which the stress or force of the voice should be placed.

A word may have more than one accent. Take as an instance aspiration. In uttering this word we give a marked emphasis of the voice upon the first and third syllables, and therefore those syllables are said to be accented. The first of these accents is less distinguishable than the second, upon which we dwell longer, therefore the second accent in point of order is called the primary, or chief accent of the word.

When the full accent falls on a vowel, that vowel should have a long sound, as in vo'cal; but when it falls on or after a consonant, the preceding vowel has a short sound, as in hab'it.

To obtain a good knowledge of pronunciation, it is advisable for the reader to listen to the examples given by good speakers, and by educated persons. We learn the pronunciation of words, to a great extent, by imitation, just as birds acquire the notes of other birds which may be near them.

But it will be very important to bear in mind that there are many words having a double meaning or application, and that the difference of meaning is indicated by the difference of the accent. Among these words, nouns are distinguished from verbs by this means: nouns are mostly accented on the first syllable, and verbs on the last.

Noun signifies name: nouns are the names of persons and things, as well as of things not material and palpable, but of which we have a conception and knowledge, such as courage, firmness, goodness, strength; and verbs express actions, movements, etc. If the word used signifies that anything has been done, or is being done, or is, or is to be done, then that word is a verb.

Thus when we say that anything is "an in'sult," that word is a noun, and is accented on the first syllable; but when we say he did it "to insult another person," the word insult' implies acting and becomes a verb, and should be accented on the last syllable.

A list of nearly all the words that are liable to similar variation is given here. It will be noticed that those in the first column, having the accent on the first syllable, are mostly nouns; and that those in the second column, which have the accent on the second and final syllable, are mostly verbs:

C before a, o, and u, and in some other situations, is a close articulation, like k. Before e, i, and y, c is precisely equivalent to s in same, this, as in cedar, civil, cypress, capacity.

E final indicates that the preceding vowel is long; as in hate, mete, sire, robe, lyre, abate, recede, invite, remote, intrude.

E final indicates that c preceding has the sound of s; as in lace, lance; and that g preceding has the sound of j, as in charge, page, challenge.

E final in proper English words, never forms a syllable, and in the most used words, in the terminating unaccented syllable it is silent. Thus, motive, genuine, examine, granite, are pronounced motiv, geruin, examin, granit.

E final in a few words of foreign origin, forms a syllable; as syncope, simile.

E final is silent after / in the following terminations,-ble, cle, dle, fle, gle, kle, ple, tle, zle; as in able, manacle, cradle, ruffle, mangle, wrinkle, supple, rattle, puzzle, which are pronounced ab'l, mana'cle, cra'dl, ruf'fl, man'gl, wrin'kl, sup'pl, puz'zl.

E is usually silent in the termination en; as in token, broken; pronounced tokn, brokn.

OUS in the termination of adjectives and their derivatives is pronounced us; as in gracious, pious, pompously.

CE, CI, TI, before a vowel, have the sound of sh; as in cetaceous, gracious, motion, partial, ingratiate: pronounced cetashus, grashus, moshun, parshal, ingrashiate.

SI, after an accented vowel, is pronounced like zh; as in Ephesian, confusion; pronounced Epezhan, confuzhon.

GH, both in the middle and at the end of words is silent; as in caught, bought, fright, nigh, sigh: prounced caut, baut, frite, ni, si. In the following exceptions, however, gh is pronounced as f:-cough, chough, clough, enough, laugh, rough, slough, tough, trough.

When WH begins a word, the aspirate h precedes w in pronunciation: as in what, whiff, whale; pronounced_hwat, hwiff, hwale, w having precisely the sound of oo, French ou. In the following words w is silent: who, whom, whose, whoop, whole.

H after r has no sound or use; as in rheum, rhyme; pronounced reum,

ryme.

H should be sounded in the middle of words; as in forehead, abhor, behold, exhaust, inhabit, unhorse.

H should always be sounded except in the following words;―heir, herb, honest, honor, hour, humor, and humble, and all their derivatives, -such as humorously, derived from humor.

K and G are silent before n; as know, gnaw; pronounced no, naw.
W before r is silent; as in wring, wreath: pronounced ring, reath.
B after m is silent; as in dumb, numb; pronounced dum, num.
L before k is silent as in balk, walk, talk; pronounced bauk, wauk,
tauk.

PH has the sound of f; as in philosophy; pronounced filosofy.
NG has two sounds, one as in singer, the other as in fin-ger.

N after m, and closing a syllable, is silent; as in hymn, condemn. P before s and t is mute; as in psalm, pseudo, ptarmigan; pronounced salm, sudo, tarmigan.

R has two sounds, one strong and vibrating, as at the beginning of words and syllables, such as robber, reckon, error; the other is at the terminations of the words, or when succeeded by a consonant, as farmer,

morn.

There are other rules of pronunciation affecting the combinations of vowels, etc., but as they are more difficult to describe, and as they do not relate to errors which are commonly prevalent, it will suffice to give examples of them in the following list of words. When a syllable in any word in this list is printed in italics, accent or stress of voice should be laid on that syllable.

COMMON ERRORS OF SPEECH.

Again, usually pronounced a-gen, not as
spelled.

Alien, ale-yen, not a-li-en.
Antipodes, an-tip-o-dees.
Apostle, as a-pos'l, without the t.
Arch, artch in compounds of our own lan-
guage, as in archbishop, archduke; but
ark in words derived from the Greek, as
archaic, ar-ka-ik; archæology, ar-ke-ol-o-
gy, archangel, ark-ain-gel, archetype,
ar-ke-type; archiepiscopal, ar-ke-e-pis-
co-pal; archipelago, ar-ke-pel-a-go; ar-
chives, ar-kivz, etc.

Asia, a-shia.

Asparagus, as spelled, not asparagrass.
Aunt, ant, not awnt.

Awkward, awk-wurd, not awk-urd.
Bade, bad.

Because, be-caws, not be-cos.
Been, bin.

Beloved, as a verb, be-luvd; as an adjective
be-luv-ed. Blessed, cursed, etc., are sub-
ject to the same rule.

Beneath, with the th in breath, not with
the th in breathe.

Biography, as spelled, not beography.
Caprice, capreece.

Catch, as spelled, not ketch.

Chaos, ka-oss.

Charlatan, shar-latan.
Chasm, kazı.
Chasten, chasn.
Chivalry, shiv-alry.
Chemistry, kem -is-try.
Choir, kwire.

Combat, kom-bat or kum-bat.
Conduit, kon-dit, kun-dit.
Corps, kor, the plural corps is pronounced
korz.
Covetous, cuv-e-tus, not cuv-e-chus.
Courteous, curt-yus.
Courtesy, (politeness), cur-te-sey.
Courtesy (a lowering of the body), curt-sey
Cresses, as spelled, not cree-ses.
Cu'riosity, cu-re-os-e-ty, not curosity.
Cushion, coosh-un, not coosh-in.
Daunt, dawnt, not dant or darnt.

Design and desist have the sound of s, not
of z.

Desire should have the sound of z.
Dew, due, not doo.

Diamond, as spelled, not di-mond.
Diploma, de-plo-ma, not dip-lo-ma.
Diplomacy, de-plo-ma-cy, not dip-lo-ma-cy.
Divers (several), di-verz; but diverse (dif-
ferent), di-verse.

Drought, drowt, not drawt.
Duke, as spelled, not dook.
Dynasty, dy-nas-ty, not dyn-as-te.
Edict, e-dickt, not ed-ickt.

E'en, and e'er, een and air.

Egotism, e-go-tism, not eg-o-tism.
Either, e-ther.

Engine, en-jin, not in-jin.
Epistle, without the t.
Epitome, e-pit-o-me.

Epoch, ep-ock, not e-pock.

Equinox, e-qui-nox, not eq-kwe-nox.
Europe, U-rup, not U-rope.
Euro-pe-an, not Eu-ro-pean.
Every, ev-er-y, not ev-ry.

Executor, egz-ec-utor, not with the sound
of x.

Extraordinary, ex-tror-di-ner-i, not ex-
traordinary, nor extrornary.
February, as spelled, not Febuary.
Finance, fi-nans, not finance.
Foundling, as spelled, not fond-ling.
Garden, gar dn, not gar-dén, nor garding.
Gauntlet, gawnt-let, not gant-let.
Geography, as spelled, not jography, or
gehography.

Geometry, as spelled, not jom-etry.
Haunt, hawnt, not hant.

Height, hite, not highth.

Heinous, hay-nus, not hee nus.
Horizon, ho-ri zn, not hori zon.
Hymencal, hy men eal, not hy menal.
Instead, in-sted, not instid.

Isolate, i-so-late, not iz-olate, nor is-olate.
Jalap, jal-ap, not jolup.

January, as spelled, not Jenuary nor
Janewary.

Leave, as spelled, not leaf.
Legend, lej-end, or le-gend.
Many, men-ney, not man-ny.

Marchioness, mar-shun-ess, not as spelled.
Massacre, mas-sa-ker.

Mattress, as spelled, not mal-trass.

Matron, ma-trun, not mat-ron.

Medicine, med-e-cin, not med-cin.
Minute (sixty seconds), min-it.
Minute (small), mi-nute.

Mischievous, mis-chiv-us, not mis-cheev-us.
Ne'er, for never, nare.

New, nu, not noo.

Oblige, as spelled, not obleege.
Oblique, ob-leek, or o-blike.
Odorous, o-der-us, not od-ur-us.

Of, ov, except when compounded with
there, here, and where, which should be
pronounced here-of, there-of, and where-
of.

Off, as spelt, not awf.
Organization, or-gan-i-za-shun.

Ostrich, os-trich, not os-tridge.

Pageant, paj-ent, not pa-jant.
Parent, pare-ent, not par-ent.

Partisan, par-te-zan, not par-te-zan, nor
par-ti-zan.

Physiognomy, as fiz-i-og-nomy, not physi

onnomy.

Pincers, pin-cerz, not pinch-erz.

Plaintiff, as spelled, not plantiff.

Precedent (an example, pres-e-dent; pre-
ce-dent (going before in point of time,
previous, former) is the pronunciation of
the adjective.

Prologue, pro-log, not prol-og.
Radish, as spelled, not red-ish.
Raillery, rail'er-y, or val-er-y, not as
spelled.

Rather, ra-ther, not rayther.
Resort, re-zort.

Resound, se-zound.

Respite, res-pit, not as spelled.

Rout (a party; and to rout) should be pro-
nounced rowt. Route (a road', root or
rowt.

Saunter, sawn-ter, not sarn-ter or san-ter.
Sausage, saw-sage, not sos-sidge, sas-sage.
Schedule, sked-ule, not shed-ule.

Seamstress is pronounced seem-stress, or

sem-stress.

Shire, as spelled, when uttered as a single
word, but shortened into shir in compo-
tion.

Shone, shon, not shun, nor as spelled.
Soldier, sole-jer.

Solecism, sol-e-cizm, not so-le-cizm.

Soot, as spelled, not sut.

Sovereign, sov-er-in, or suv-er-in.

Specious, spe-shus, not spesh-us.
Stomacher, stum-a-cher.

Stone (weight), as spelled, not stun.
Synod, sin-od, not sy-nod.
Tenure, ten-ure, not te-nure.
Tenet, ten-et, not te-net.

Than, as spelled, not thun.

Twelfth should have the th sounded.
Umbrella, as spelled, not um-ber-el-la.
Vase, vaiz or vahz, not vawze.
Was, woz, not wuz.
Weary, weer-i, not wary.

Were, wer, not ware.

Wrath, ath, (as in arm) not rath; as an ad-
jective it is spelled wroth, and pro-
nounced with the vowel sound shorter,
as in wrathful, etc.
Yacht, yot, not yat.
Zenith, ze-nith or zen-ith.
Zodiac, zo-de-ak.

Zoology should have both o's sounded as
zo-ol-o-gy, not zoo-lo-gy.

-ace, not iss, as furnace, not furniss.
-age, not idge, as cabbage, courage, postage, village.
-ain, ane, not in, as certain, certane, not certin.

-ate, not it, as moderate, not moderit.

--ect, not ec, as aspect, not aspec; subject, not subjec.

-ed, not id, or ud, as wicked, not wickid, or wickud.

-el, not 1, model, not modl; novel, not novl.

Note. The tendency of all good elocutionists is to pronounce as nearly in accordance with the spelling as possible.

-en, not n, as sudden, not suddn.-Burden, burthen, garden, lengthen, seven, strengthen, often, and a few others, have the e silent.

-ence, not unce, as influence, not influ-unce.

-es, not is, as pleases, not pleasis.

-ile, should be pronounced il, as fertil, not fertile, in all words except chamomile, (cam), exile, gentile, infantile, reconcile, and senile, which should be pronounced ile.

-in, not n, as Latin, not Latn.

-nd, not n, as husband, not husband, thousan, not thousan.

-ness, not niss, as carefulness, not carefulniss.

-ng, not n, as singing, not singin; speaking, not speakin.

-ngth, not nth, as strength, not strenth.

--son, the o should be silent; as in treason, tre-zn, not tre-son.

-tal, not tle, as capital, not capitle; metal, not mettle; mortal, not mortle; periodical, not periodicle.

-xt, not x, as next, not nex.

TWELVE THOUSAND SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS.

No two words in the English language have exactly the same significance, but to express the precise meaning that one intends to convey, and to avoid repetition, it is often desirable to have at hand a Dictionary of Synonyms. Take President Cleveland's famous phrase, “innocuous desuetude." If he had said simply, "harmless disuse," it would have sounded clumsy, whereas the words he used expressed the exact shade of meaning, besides giving the world a new phrase and the newspapers something to talk about.

The following list of SYNONYMS, while not exhaustive, is quite comprehensive, and by cross-reference will answer most requirements. The appended ANTONYMS, or words of opposite meaning, enclosed in parentheses, will also be found extremely valuable, for one of the strongest figures of speech is antithesis, or contrast:

ABANDON, leave, forsake, desert, renounce, relinquish, quit, forego,* let go, waive. (Keep, cherish.) ABANDONED, deserted, forsaken, wicked, reprobate, dissolute, profligate, flagitious, corrupt, depraved, vicious. (Cared for, virtuous.) ABANDONMENT, leaving, desertion, dereliction, renunciation, defection. ABASEMENT, degradation, fall, degeneracy, humiliation, abjection, debasement, servility. (Honor.) ABASH, bewilder, disconcert, discompose, confound, confuse, shame. (Embolden.) ABBREVIATE, shorten, abridge, condense, contract, curtail, reduce. (Extend.) ABDICATE, give up, resign, renounce, abandon, forsake, relinquish, quit, forego. ABET, help, encourage, instigate, incite, stimulate, aid, assist. (Resist.) ABETTOR, assistant, accessory, accomplice, promoter, instigator, particeps criminis, coadjutor, associate, companion, co operator. (Opponent.) ABHOR, dislike intensely, view with horror, hate, detest, abominate, loathe, nauseate. (Love.) ABILITY, capability, talent, faculty, capacity, qualification, aptitude, aptness, expertness, skill, efficiency, accomplishment, attainment. (Incompetency.) ABJECT, grovelling, low, mean, base, ignoble, worthless, despicable, vile, servile, contemptible. (Noble.) ABJURE, recant, forswear, disclaim, recall, revoke, retract, renounce. (Maintain.) ABLE, strong, powerful, muscular, stalwart, vigorous, athletic, robust, brawny, skillful, adroit, competent, efficient, capable, clever, self-qualified, telling, fitted. (Weak.)