Is not this rather a gloomy view of things? But there is much truth in it. "No healthy women in the country"! We hope our young feminine readers (and we have many of them) will resolve to do what they can to dissipate the fear. Let them first form an intelligent conviction of the absolute importance of daily regular exercise in the open air to the health; and then let them put into practice what they know to be for their bodily welfare. We propose in future papers (at the risk of being thought to have a "hobby ") to say more upon this subject. It is one of incalculable importance; and if parents and teachers will not arouse to a sense of this fact, we hope that Young America will take the matter in hand, and initiate a reform. "I could not but be impressed by the analogy between this process and the opening of a child's mind by education. Each fact, each precept, by itself, seems to have but little effect; and a Teacher goes on, year after year, often discouraged at seeing so little resulting from her labors; but suddenly, at a moment when she is ready to believe all has been done in vain, the mind expands like the evening primrose, and a full-blown flower is open before her." PORSON AT SCHOOL. - Professor Porson, when a boy at Eton school, discovered the most astonishing powers of memory. In going up to a lesson, one day, he was accosted by a boy in the same form *—“ Porson, what have you got there?"— « Hor 66 ace." "Let me look at it." Porson In the list of the contents of the wardrobe of the Princess Royal of England, on handed the book to the boy, who, pretendher recent marriage, there was one enumering to return it, dexterously substituted ation that should attract the attention of another in its place, with which Porson our young women. It was of "twelve dozen pairs of boots," described as "useful and he read and construed Carm. 1. x. very proceeded. Being called on by the master, solid." Some of them, intended for rough regularly. Observing the class to laugh, walking, were provided with treble soles. the master said, " Porson, you seem to be The high-born ladies of England think noth-reading on one side of the page, while I am ing of walking ten miles a day over a miry looking at the other. Pray, whose edition road. They have been bred to rational have you ?" Porson hesitated. "Let me habits of exercise; and they know that see it," rejoined the master, who, to his beauty is not long consistent with ill-health. great surprise, found it to be an English Ovid. Porson was ordered to go on; which he did easily, correctly, and promptly, to the end of the ode. THE MIND'S EXPANSION. - I was much struck," writes a gifted instructress to the SCHOOL MONTHLY, "with a passage in Herschel's Discourses on Natural Philosophy, descriptive of the process by which millstones are separated from the mass, in France. When a mass of stone sufficiently large is found, it is cut into a cylinder several feet high. The question then arises, how to subdivide this into horizontal pieces so as to make as many mill-stones. For this purpose, horizontal grooves are chiseled out quite around the cylinder, into which wedges of dry wood are driven. These are then exposed to the night dew, and the next morning the pieces are found separated by the expansion of the wood.' served, with much significance, that every morning we enter upon a new day, carrying still an unknown future in its bosom. How pregnant and stirring the reflection! Thoughts may be born to-day which may never die. Feelings may be awakened today which may never be extinguished. Hope may be excited to-day which may never expire. Acts may be performed today the consequence of which may not be realized till eternity. *Webster says that the o in this word, when used in the sense of a bench or class at school, is long. Original. A SCENE ON THE PENOBSCOT. ON the blue, the broad Penobscot, With their rocks and trees and bushes, On the ocean, stately vessels, Friend! who on the deck reclining, Ocean's haze of softest purple, On the somber days and silent, For this bright, this happy morning! Original. IS HEALTH PROPER FOR YOUNG LADIES? Enter MRS. FLUSTER and MISS MENDUM, meeting. Mrs. Fluster. This is Miss Mendum, I believe. Miss Mendum. The same, madam. Mrs. F. And I am Mrs. Fluster. Miss M. The aunt of my little pupil, Ruth Penway? Mrs. F. The same. Miss M. Be seated, madam. (They sit.) 122 IS HEALTH PROPER FOR YOUNG LADIES? Mrs. F. I have come, Miss Mendum, to expostulate with you on the course you are pursuing in regard to my niece's education. Miss M. I shall be happy to receive your suggestions. You are aware that Mr. Penway, on going to Europe, confided his daughter to my charge, making me promise that I would bring her up as I would my own child. I assure you I feel the responsibility of the office. Mrs. F. Ah! if you had had my maternal experience, you would have been more careful in guarding her from the coarse, vulgar habits into which she has fallen. Miss M. But are not all these facts an evidence that she has improved in health? Mrs. F. Health, indeed! Who wants to see a coarse, exuberant state of health in an heiress and a belle ? It may do very well in a washerwoman; but, let me tell you, it is very uninteresting in Ruth Penway. Miss M. I differ from you so entirely that it seems absurd for me to argue against your opinion. Mrs. F. Did you say my opinion was absurd, miss? Did you dare to say that? Miss M. I said no such thing. All that you have told me of Ruth's health gratifies me extremely. My training has been directed to produce the very result which you seem to disap prove. Mrs. F. Your training has made her a romp a great, strong, masculine girl, as brown as one of those German women who spend their summers in picking berries. Miss M. What has she done to offend your sense of propriety? Mrs. F. Was n't she seen last Wednesday morning, when the thermometer was at zero, actually shov Miss M. Coarse, vulgar habits? There | eling snow from the sidewalk before your is no more ladylike girl in my school. house? Mrs. F. I mean what I say. You need not put on that dignified air, miss. I know who your father was! Miss M. All the world may know that, madam. He was a good carpenter, and an honest, intelligent man. But let us keep to the point. What are these coarse, vulgar habits of which you speak? Mrs. F. Why, miss, when my brotherin-law sent Ruth to you, three years ago, she was as delicate, refined, pale-faced a child as one would wish to see. She could not have weighed more than fifty pounds. Now she has doubled in weight- has a brown, ruddy complexion, a robust figure, and stands erect as a May-pole. The poor child has altogether lost that graceful stoop which I used to admire. Miss M. I saw it, madam, and delighted I was to see it. When I thought of the poor, puny little thing, who came to me three winters ago, weak and shivering, and when I looked upon the active, graceful girl, her cheeks glowing with health, her limbs warm with exercise, braving the cold and the sleet, tears of pleasure sprang to my eyes, and I felt proud of my work. Mrs. F. What will you say, miss, to her being seen on Hacmetac Pond, with skates on her feet, moving at most unbecoming speed over the ice, and carrying a stick bent at the end in her hand? Miss M. I gave her the skates and the stick, and taught her the use of them. Mrs. F. And you sit there and confess it! What would my venerable instructress, Miss Sophonisba Primwood, have said to see one of her pupils skating like a boy? | shall be glad. I shall write to her father She would have fainted on the spot! Miss M. Did she think that the boys ought to have a monopoly of the healthful out-of-door exercises? at once, denouncing your whole system. Miss M. You have been anticipated. He has known it these two years. Mrs. F. Well, if he is fool enough to submit to it, I will go among my fashionable acquaintances, and expose the whole thing. Miss M. You will oblige me by so doing. It will save me some money in advertising. Mrs. F. Provoking woman!, Mrs. F. She knew what belonged to a lady. She never would let us walk out except in single file, with a monitress at the head. Ah! she had studied the proprieties. I am indebted to her for all my knowledge of deportment. The doctor of the village called her a model schoolmistress. She used to put more business into his hands than all the families in the place. There was hardly a day that he was not called in to attend some one of the young ladies. Such recommendations of her sem-tility. Sensible people are beginning to inary as he used to give! Miss M. Though I can not boast, madam, of the number of my doctor's visits, I can boast of those of my market-man. Mrs. F. I can only pity, miss, your want of refinement. I shall by and by expect to see your young ladies driving hoop, or playing at puss-in-the-corner. Miss M. As soon as the weather is propitious, your expectation will be fulfilled. Mrs. F. Shall we see football? Miss M. The feminine dress forbids. Besides, we have more agreeable sports. If you will come next spring, you shall see how well Ruth can use the rake and hoe. You shall also see her scull a boat across the pond after lilies. Mrs. F. Abominable! And you encourage such things! What if she should fall overboard? Miss M. She would not care much; for Ruth is a capital swimmer. Mrs. F. A swimmer? My niece a swimmer? Your treatment of her is atrocious! (Rising.) What next, miss? Perhaps pugilism and the broadsword exercise! Miss M. (rising). Well, to be candid, Ruth is anxious to take lessons in fencing, and I do not know but I shall let her learn the principles of the art. Mrs. F. Worse and worse! If I do not hear of her taking part in a prize-fight, I Miss M. Permit me to say, madam, that you are behind the age. Ill-health is gētting to be unfashionable. Dyspepsia is no passport to the best society. A cough is no certificate of what you would call gen realize the importance of abundant air and Mrs. F. You are an essentially vulgar Miss M. Poor Mrs. Fluster! Her disapproval has no terrors. Her recommendation is what I dread. [Exit. WORDS ABOUT WORDS. SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH has well said that, "in a language like ours, where so many words are derived from other languages, there are few modes of instruction more useful or more amusing than that of tracing out the etymology and primary meaning of the words we use. There are cases in which knowledge of more real value may be conveyed from the history of a word than from the history of a campaign." An examination of almost every word employed in this quotation would confirm its truth and illustrate its meaning. Take the principal one - the word derive. It means primarily and in its etymology, to flow out from, as a river from its source; the last syllable of derive is indeed identical with the word river. When we speak of a word being derived, therefore, we employ, though often unconsciously, a very poetical figure, and suggest the idea that it branches out from its simple original meaning into various ramifications, and passes through many changes in its course; and when we speak of tracing out the derivations of a word, we mean that we will follow the course of this river up to its fountain-head. Let us begin with the term Pagan. The Latin word pagaʼni meant villagers; indeed, our word peasant seems to have been formed from it. But it was among the rural population that Christianity spread most slowly; so that, at a time when the inhabitants of the large cities-the centers of mental activity and intelligence had, for the most part, received the Gospel, the peasants, or pagani, still continued to worship their old deities. Hence this word began to suggest the idea of idolatry, and at length came to express it exclusively, so that idolater and pagan became synony mous. The history of this single word is sufficient to disprove the allegation that the spread of Christianity in its early ages was due to the ignorance and superstition of its converts, since it shows that they were drawn from those who were the least open to this charge. The word Pagan is by no means the only name of reproach derived from the rustics. Villain, or villein, as it was formerly spelt, is just villa-in, that is, a servant employed on a ville or farm. Churl (from which comes our name Charles) meant originally a strong man, and then a rural laborer. A boor was a farmer; and a neighbor was simply a nigh boor. A coward was one who cowered in the presence of an enemy; a caitiff, one who had allowed himself to be taken captive. Valor and value are the same word, and were spelt alike till the reign of Elizabeth, the valor of a man being regarded as his value. The same feeling is contained in the Latin word virtus, virtue. Its etymological signification is that which is becoming in a vir or man; this the Romans deemed to be military valor and fortitude preeminently. A virtuous man, in their esteem, was a brave soldier. Among their degenerate descendants, a virtuoso is a collector of, curiosities and articles of taste! But our language is not without indications that the people retaliated upon their rulers in giving ill names. Our word cheat seems clearly derived from the escheats or legal forfeitures of property to the king or feudal lord, and which were often enforced under false pretences. The word exact has two meanings — as when we say any thing is exactly correct, and when we speak of an extortionate exaction. It is derived from the Latin word ex-actum-forced out. The connection between these various and seemingly discordant meanings is seen when we remember that the claims of the feudal lords upon their serfs (or servants) were so exorbitant, that if exactly exacted, the exaction had to be forced out from them. The suspicion with which all classes regarded learning is clearly indicated by one of the terms for magic, gramarye that is, grammar. A spell, or something read, was a magical incantation; a witty or knowing person was a witch. As a contrast to those expressions which connect rudeness with rusticity, we may point out such words as urbane, civil, civilize, polish, polite, as all indicating the life or deportment characteristic of a citizenurbs and civis being the Latin, and põlis the Greek terms for a city. From põlis we likewise get politics and policeman. Courtesy and courtship clearly enough originate with the court; and when a lady would be courteous, she makes a courtesy. |