applied to a Railway Station, ought either to drop its t, or submit to the pronunciation which English analogy naturally suggests.

The truth of this whole matter seems to be, that certain of Webster's early experimental spellings have been dropped in all his later works and editions, while in respect to others, the tendency of usage, which Webster had the sagacity to discern and fall in with, has in the lapse of time not only amply sustained and justified the steps he took, but in some cases actually left him behind. So great, in fact, have been the changes, that what once was innovation is now no longer such; and they who would go back to cumbrous and antiquated forms of spelling are the real innovators. To declare now-a-days for the restoration of k, as in antick, or of u, as in favour, would be worse treason against usage, than it was thirty years ago to levy war against these and analogous usurpers. At the bar of usage Webster stands acquitted. His Dictionary has, in fact, become the standard, and it is too late to affirm the contrary. A Dictionary which has given law to forty millions of the author's own spelling books, a million and a quarter of which yearly find their way into our schools-which is the adopted standard of ten millions of volumes of school books annually published in this country, and of periodicals with an annual issue of thirty millionswhich has found its way everywhere into schools, offices, and families, received the sanction of the highest names at home and abroad, and proved, probably, the most successful work ever published in America-such a Dictionary we may well look upon as established, and we welcome it in the new edition as better adapted than ever before to add luster to the name it bears, and be at once a blessing and an honor to our literature.

RAMBLES AMONG WORDS.*-Mr. Scribner sends us an attractive book by William Swinton, called "Rambles Among Words: Their Poetry, History, and Wisdom." Mr. Swinton is a Scotchman, and we know it by his use of words, and are confirmed in our judgment by the glowing enthusiasm, as well as by the slightly timid phraseology which he not rarely employs. But he has written a charming book, and we hope he will make all haste to prepare the other which he promises, "On the unworked mines of the English Language." The present volume takes us through twelve Rambles, which are thus

*Rambles Among Words: Their Poetry, History, and Wisdom. By WILLIAM SWINTON. New York: Charles Scribner. 1859. 16mo. pp. 302. Price $1.

named: Premonitory, The Work of the Senses, The Idealism of Words, Fossil Poetries, Fossil Histories, Words of Abuse, Fancies and Fantasties, Verbal Ethics, Medals in Names, Synonyms and their Suggestions, The Growth of Words, English in America. The reader who takes the author for his guide will find himself conducted hither and thither, he knows not how, and at the end of the way has been so pleasantly beguiled that he will be surprised to learn that the etymologies of some fifteen hundred words have been explained, not in every instance correctly, perhaps; but in the majority of cases with truth, wisdom and wit. It is an admirable book for the young who are beginning to think; and a delightful book for the old who have thought much and are willing to think more.

LATIN LESSONS AND TABLES.*-This little volume of 128 pages is a valuable contribution, by a teacher of some twenty-five years' experience in his profession, to the already somewhat voluminous literature of classical schools. As embodying the results of so much experience, it commands at once our attention. The author has been long distinguished for his success in thoroughly preparing young men for college, and we have in this little book a specimen of the manner in which he has achieved his success. We will remark here, that no more worthy task can employ the ripe scholar, than to render easy to stammering lips the first devious ways of an unknown tongue.

In tenui labor, at non tenuis gloria, si quem

Numina laeva sinunt.

Of such importance is it to begin right, that we justly hold, with the Ascraean sage, agxn dé To μidu Tavros; or in our homely proverb, "Well begun, half done."

In the first nineteen pages of the "Latin Lessons," the author has given selections from Cæsar's Commentaries, and in the next eleven pages, English sentences corresponding, to be rendered back into the Latin. In both of these, the learner is conducted, as rapidly as possible, into connected narration, being kept on short disconnected sentences only so long as is deemed absolutely necessary for the preparatory drill

* Latin Lessons and Tables; combining the Analytic and Synthetic Methods; consisting of selections from Cæsar's Commentaries, with a Complete System of Memorizing the Grammar, Notes, Exercises in Translating from English into Latin, Tables, and a Vocabulary. By CYRUS S. RICHARDS, A. M., Principal of Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Company. 1859. pp. 128.

ing. The author deems the fragmentary style a bore, and has avoided it as much as possible. In order, however, to obviate the danger of wearying and puzzling the young learner, who has little confidence and less dexterity, whole paragraphs of easy sentences are disposed here and there, as halting places in the progress of the narrative, where the pupil may take a brief review, and reassure himself of his knowledge of what he has already learned. In addition to this, the Notes leave no difficulty unexplained. We have never seen any so patiently thorough, and so minutely critical.

A peculiar feature of the book is a collection of Tables, chiefly etymological, designed for a brief compendium of reference. We will specify among these "The Euphonic Laws of Declension," "The General Principles of Conjugation," and the "Synopsis of Latin Syntax;" in the latter of which the author has made a happy attempt to reduce the numerous rules of Andrews and Stoddard to the generalizations of Prof. Crosby's Greek Syntax, so far as the subject allows.

We must disagree with our author in a few points, chiefly in his theory of the Modes; upon which, however, our limits restrict us to a few general observations on his division of the Modes into "Distinct and Incorporated." Our author follows Prof. Crosby in regarding the Infinitive and Participle as Incorporated Modes. The Infinitive, it is true, has inherited from the older grammarians its time-honored rank among the Modes; to which, however, it has none but a prescriptive right. If we define mode to be that subjective limitation which the mind imposes on the verb-idea, we must exclude the infinitive, so called, from that category. It is evidently the negation of mode, rather than mode itself. But if we define mode, more loosely, as the manner of the action or state expressed by the verb, it is hard to see why we should stop short with the infinitive and participle, and not go on to include some other verbals among the Modes. "Lying is base,” and “To lie is base;" where is the distinction of mode? Why are not amabilis and amandus, moribundus and moriens, equally good modes? Why is Toros regarded as only a verbal adjective, while its equivalent, faciendus, is called a mode? Why should not ἡ ἐπιορκία rank with τὸ ἐπιορκεῖν !

We are reluctantly obliged to take leave of the subject. We will simply remark that our author has been remarkably successful in following out his method, which is severely grammatical. We should have been pleased to observe some recognition of the new philology, according to Becker and his followers. In our opinion the perfect text-book for the study of language is yet to be written; which should combine

the grammatical and the logical in their due proportion. There is great danger that in following the exclusively grammatical method our scholars will become mere word-mongers. But we recommend the "Latin Lessons" of Mr. Richards as the ne plus ultra yet offered to those who have no proclivities to Ollendorff on the one side, or to Becker on the other.

THE "LATIN" QUESTION.-The "Latin" question is not yet settled. The exact relation of the Latin language to the Greek is still a matter of debate among the more recent philologists.

Dr. Augustus Schleicher of Bonn, a highly distinguished philologist, holds that the Latin and Greek form a family group or pair, being more closely allied to each other than to any other Indo-European family. He supposes that the Latin and Greek people continued together for some time after their separation from the main stock. See his Die Sprachen Europas, Bonn, 1850; p. 135.

C. Lottner of Berlin contends, on the contrary, that the Latin is as closely allied to some of the northern families, particularly to the Teutonic, as it is to the Greek. Notwithstanding the clear lexicographical relation of the Latin and Greek, he finds a still nearer connection of the Latin with the Teutonic. For 123 words specially related to the Greek, he finds 137 specially related to the Teutonic. Roman mythology is connected with the Teutonic and Sanskrit as well as with the Greek. See an essay by Lottner on this subject in Kuhns' Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforchung, Band VII. Berlin, 1858.

We are inclined to believe that the view of Schleicher approaches nearest the truth, and will finally gain the ascendency.

As philologists maintain a close relation between the Indo-European languages, and derive them all from one original language or common source, they naturally wish to show how and in what order the different families have separated from the main stock.

The latest view is that of C. Lottner in the periodical mentioned above.

According to his theory the Perso-Sanskrit group first separated from the main stock, and formed at a subsequent period the Sanskrit family and the Persian or Iranian family.

The remainder of the stock, or the European portion of the IndoEuropean languages, continued together, though on a new soil, till at last the Latin family separated itself, then the Greek, then the Celtic, leaving the Teutonic, Lettish, and Slavic as one group, which finally formed three distinct families.

TRAVELS.

ELLIS'S THREE VISITS TO MADAGASCAR.*-The Island of Madagascar extends over an area twice as great as that of the six New England States combined, and is inhabited by more than three millions of people. For years it has been regarded with special interest by the Christian world. In 1828 the prospects of its civilization and Christianization were exceedingly hopeful. Missionaries of the London Missionary Society had been received by Radama, the king, and for ten years had been established in his capital. Ten or fifteen thousands of the natives had learned to read; many of them also to write; a few had made some slight progress in English, and a number had professed themselves Christians. A thousand or fifteen hundred native young men had been placed as apprentices under missionary artisans, had been taught to work in iron, and had been trained in all the mechanical arts. But unhappily for Madagascar, Radama died in 1828, at the age of thirty six, and all the enlightening and humanizing influences, which were so full of promise for the nation, terminated with his life. The Prince designated by him as his successor was assassinated, and the supreme power passed into the hands of the present Queen, who soon changed the whole policy of the government. The old superstitions of the country were restored to their former supremacy, the profession of the Christian religion was prohibited, all Christian books were required to be given up, and the missionaries and Christian artisans were expelled from the country. The new government showed itself determined to arrest the progress of Christianity, and to destroy it wherever it might appear. The reports of the terrible persecution which then commenced, to which the Christian converts were exposed, attracted at the time universal interest and sympathy in England and America. The firmness with which those who had but so recently embraced Christianity maintained their new faith, even after their religious teachers had all been expelled from the island, and the fortitude with which they met death in all its most aggravated forms, rather than apostatize, have never been surpassed.

But all communication from Madagascar soon ceased. Whether

* Three Visits to Madagascar, during the Years 1853, 1854, 1856. Including a Journey to the Capital; with notices of the Natural History of the country, and of the present civilization of the people. By the Rev. WILLIAM ELLIS, F. R. S., Author of "Polynesian Researches." Illustrated by wood cuts from photographs. New York: Harper & Brothers. 8vo. 1859. pp. 514. For sale by S. Babcock.