forms of human speech, being made up

of words of one syllable.

The ancient language of Britain is now found only in some parts of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and the foundation of our present language, which now contains above one hundred thousand words, is the same as that spoken on the coast of Germany. It was brought over by Angles, Saxons (hence Anglo-Saxons), Jutes, and other tribes from the Continent. Anglo-Saxon is the mother-tongue of our present English, to which in various forms Latin words have been added, together with a few words from the languages of other nations.

For teaching you the different changes in the English language, as well as for an interesting list of words borrowed from the Arabic, Turkish, Chinese, &c., the best books to help you are Dr. Morris's "Historical Outlines of English Accidence," and Archbishop Trench's "English Past and Present."

I am afraid I have confused you a little in this talk about language, but you can hear it another time over again when you are older and

better able to learn the importance belonging to the study of the wonderful gift by which we are able to talk to people in various languages, and read in ancient books the history of man's gropings after God. I want to lead you on to feel and know that the study of words is a delightful way of spending time, and that the dictionary, which is thought by most people to be a dry book, is full of poetry and history and beauty locked up in its words, which the key of the wise will open.

XI. Writing.

It is much easier to tell you how men learned to write.

The use of writing is to put something before the eye in such a way that its meaning may be known at a glance, and the earliest way of doing this was by a picture. Picture-writing was thus used for many ages, and is still found among savage races in all quarters of the globe. On rocks, stone slabs, trees, and tombs, this way was employed to record an event, or tell some message.

In the course of time, instead of this tedious mode, men learned to write signs for certain words or sounds. Then the next step was to separate the word into letters, and to agree upon certain signs to always represent certain letters, and hence arose alphabets. The shape of the letters of the alphabet is thought by some to bear traces of the early picture-writing. To show you what is meant, Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, means an ox, and the sign for that letter was an outline of an ox's head.

The signs used by astronomers for the sun, moon, and planets; the signs I, II, III, for one, two, and three, are proofs that if picturewriting is of value to man in a civilized state, it must have been of greater value to him, and much more used by him, the farther we search back. We still speak of signing our name, although we have ceased to use a sign or mark, as was done when few could write.

XII. Counting.

The art of Counting is slowly learned by savage tribes, and at this day some are found that cannot reckon beyond four, or that, if they can, have no words for higher figures.

All over the world the fingers have been and are used as counters, and among many tribes the word for "hand" and "five" is the same.

This may be taken as a common mode by which the savage reckons :

One hand

:

Two hands or half a man

Two hands, and one foot.

5

IO.

15

We do the same, as shown in the word digit, which is the name for any of the figures from one to nine, and comes from the Latin digitus, which means a finger; while counting by fives and tens enters into all our dealings. One early way of counting was by pebbles, the Latin for which is calculi, and we preserve this fact in our use of the word calculate; just as, when we tie a knot in our handkerchief to

remind us of something we fear to forget, we are copying the ancient plan of counting with knotted cords.

This story of the World's Childhood has been chiefly learned by studying the lessons taught by those traces of man which are found in the north-western part of Europe, but it is believed that he first lived elsewhere, and afterwards travelled here. For in the days known as the Ancient Stone Age, when Britain and Ireland were joined to the mainland, and great rivers flowed through the valleys which are now covered by the German Ocean and English Channel, and when woolly-haired elephants and rhino-. ceroses roamed about the pine forests of what is now England and France, Europe was very much colder than it is now, and it is thought that man did not live there before these huge

creatures.

You will one day learn from the beautiful story which rocks and rivers are ever telling, what vast changes have happened over all the earth, in proof of which you may think about