BALLYSHAN CASTLE is a Protestant tale, published by N. Tibbals & Co., of New York-a 12mo. of 355 pages. We are assured that the staple of the work is sober matter of fact. Its author-who, by the way, is a young Christian woman-a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church-is highly honored by the encomiums bestowed by the press upon this the maiden effort of her pen. The main design of the work, as we gather from a glance at it, is to show the wickedness, bigotry, and folly of the proscriptive and persecuting spirit of Romanism; and to place it in contrast with the genuine spirit of Christianity, as exhibited under the nurture of the Protestant faith. The narrative is written in a lively, pleasing style, and some of the descriptive scenes are wrought up with fine effect. The Rev. Dr. Dowling says: "Though there is evidence enough that the authoress belongs to another Protestant denomination than that with which I stand connected, yet the spirit of the work is by no means sectarian, and I most cheerfully commend it to Protestants of every name." For sale at the Western Book Concern. THE LIFE OF CURRER BELL-Charlotte Bronte-is bringing afresh before the public the charming series of tales-life dramas, we might call them-produced by her and her gifted sisters. They comprise the following list, namely: The Professor, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, Wuthering Hights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Of these, Jane Eyre is no doubt best known to our readers. The Life, just published, takes the mask from many of the characters in the above works. The above works Bowman, D. D., Principal, assisted by ten teachers. Students, 436. SCIENCE HILL FEMALE ACADEMY, Shelbyville, Ky., Mrs. Julia A. Tevis, Principal, assisted by eleven teachers. Students, 253. WORTHINGTON FEMALE COLLEGE, Worthington, O., Rev. Benjamin St. James Fry, A. M., President, assisted by four teachers. XENIA FEMALE ACADEMY AND COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, Xenia, O., Rev. O. M. Spencer, A. M., President, aided by five teachers. Students, 124. ALBION FEMALE COLLEGE AND WESLEYAN SEMINARY, Rev. Thomas H. Sinex, A. M., President, assisted by a faculty of seven professors and teachers. Total number of students, 356. CATALOGUE AND REGISTER OF FORT WAYNE COLLEGE, Rev. R. D. Robinson, A. M., President, assisted by seven professors and teachers. Total number of students, 293. THE GENERAL CATALOGUE OF THE OHIO UNIVERSITY, prepared by Prof. W. H. Young, makes a fine 8vo. pamphlet of 42 pages. The whole number of its alumni is 175. Of these, 53 are lawyers, 53 clergymen, 30 professors and teachers, and 13 physicians. The honorary degrees conferred are, 5 of the degree of A. B., 32 of A. M., 8 of D. D., and 1 LL. D. The number of students in attendance is 186. MORE'S HILL COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, la.-Rev. S. R. Adams, A. M., President, assisted by 8 teachers. Stuare published by Harpers. Western publishers, Derby, dents: collegiate department, 66; preparatory, 131-toDemarest & Harper, Cincinnati. PERIODICALS AND PAMPHLETS. A BACCALAUREATE TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE INDIANA ASBURY FEMALE College, New Albany, AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1857. By B. F. Rawlins, A. M., President.-This is a judicious discourse, adorned with pertinent Scriptural and historical illustration, and admirably adapted to its purpose. "AN ADDRESS ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE LATE JOHN LOCKE, delivered at the request of the Cincinnati Medical Society, by M. B. Wright, M. D.”—Dr. Locke was eminent for his scientific and professional attainments. The address before us is written with great felicity of style, and shows a just and generous appreciation of the character of its subject. APPLETON'S RAILWAY AND STEAM NAVIGATION GUIDE is issued monthly, and will be found a most serviceable companion for the traveler. Price, 25 cents. MANUAL OF INFORMATION, respecting the Garrett Biblical Institute. J. Dempster, D. D., D. P. Kidder, D. D., and H. Banister, D. D., Professors. John K. Johnston, A. M., Preparatory Department. FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT of the Board of Ministers of the United Brethren in Christ, with a list of life members and directors. BALDWIN UNIVERSITY, Berea, O., Rev. John Wheeler, A. M., President, assisted by six professors and teachers.. Total number, 312. DICKINSON SEMINARY, Williamsport, Penn., Rev. Thos. 1 tal, 197. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, for July, contains-1. New Sea-Side Studies, No. II-the Sicily Isles. 2. Part II of What Will we Do With It? 3. Charles the Fifth. 4. Scenes of Clerical Life. 5. Currer Bell. 6. Life of Sir Charles J. Napier. 7. Representation of the Colonies. Sea-Side Studies are instructive as well as interesting. "Currer Bell"-Charlotte Bronte-is exceedingly piquant. The number is one of unusual interest. L. Scott & Co., New York. $3. WE are indebted to Rev. W. F. Lowe, the Secretary, for the recent Minutes of Niagara and Bay Quinte annual conferences of the Canada Methodist Episcopal Church. In the former conference there are 6,791 members, and 86 traveling preachers; in the latter, 6,561 members, and 71 traveling preachers-making a total of 13,352 members, and 157 preachers. The Canada Christian Advocate is published by this body, at Hamilton, U. C. It is an ably conducted journal, edited by Rev. G. Shepard. They have also a Book Concern at the same place. While examining this interesting document, we were led to inquire whether there is not some ground on which a union could be effected between the Wesleyan connection in Canada and the Methodist Episcopal Church there. Kindly as they may feel and act toward each other, their separate organization must tend to weaken each in many places. If combined, they would make a powerful organization, efficient for good. METHODIST ALMANAC for 1858 is on our table--a desideratum for every Methodist family cheap, reliable, and abounding with interesting statistics. Notes and Queries. GERMAN AND DUTCH.-By many these are confounded, not only as to language, but as to nationality. There is a wide distinction between them. The German is the language of Austria proper, Styria, the Tyrol, parts of Bohemia and Moravia, a portion of Transylvania, and of some other parts of the Austrian empire. It is the language of the greater part of Prussia, and of all the smaller states of Germany-such as Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, Wirtemberg, etc., excepting only east Frieseland. It is spoken also in parts of Switzerland. There are, however, various dialects, and the Swiss differs much from the Saxon. The only nation which speaks the language is the German; but Germany is divided into several states, and distributed among several sovereignties. The Dutch is peculiarly the language of Holland, and is not spoken much elsewhere. As there are but few emigrants from Holland, we do not often see a genuine Dutchman, though we commonly misname the German, Dutch. W. ARCHITECTURAL DEVICE.-Over the principal entrance to cathedrals, it was formerly customary to place a large rose window, called a Wheel of Providence. It was usually surrounded by seven rays, upon which were pictures in the stained glass, emblematic of the vicissitudes of human life. The seven ages, I suppose, became in this way the proverbial number. They are familiar to us from Shakspeare's description, in which he mentions the leading features of the life of man: 1. Infancy. 2. Boyhood. 3. Youth. 4. Manhood. 5. Maturity. 6. Old Age. 7. Decrepitude. Wheels of Providence were frequently introduced in the sculptures, paintings, and other decorations of ancient churches. W. A CURIOUS COIN.-The Germans used to have a coin known by the name of the screw-dollar. These coins were made to unscrew, and inside of them were placed paint ings, carved ivory plates, written prayers, etc. They of ten contained portraits of distinguished military men, imperial governors of the cities, and representations of the Holy Trinity. They were quite common in the town of Augsburg; but whether they were uttered elsewhere, I am not informed; nor do I know the origin of so singu lar a custom. S. W. W. DOG DAYS.-This name was given to a certain portion of summer, from the fact that, in the time of the ancient astronomers, the star Sirius, called also "The Dog Star," rose just before the sun about the beginning of July; and the sultry heat of that season, together with the tendency of dogs to run mad, were ascribed to the raging of the star. Hence the time of its ascendency was called dog days. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the heliacal rising of Sirius now takes place in a later or cooler season of the year, and can have no relation to what we call dog days. MONOSYLLABIC COMPOSITION. Shakspeare makes abundant use of monosyllables. There are forty in four lines in "King John," act iii, sc. 3, where the King is pausing in his wish to incense Hubert to Arthur's murder. He says: "Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet; But thou shalt have: and creep time ne'er so slow, I had a thing to say. But let it go." So too, in "Julius Cæsar," act i, sc. 2, in the six lines following, but three words occur of more than one syllable, and one of them is a proper name: "Now in the name of all the gods at once, Many more such illustrations might be given from Shakspeare's plays. In our language, monosyllables are nearly all of Saxon origin, and are the most nervous expressions of our ideas. ""RELIABLE. This incorrect word is fast gaining ground, and unless protested against, it will soon find its way into dictionaries, and become recognized English. Thus is our mother tongue weakened and abused! "These loose observations are the result of a train of thought suggested by a word, which, having sprung up— I think-within the last ten years, is now found in nearly every review and newspaper-I mean the word reliable. Reliable evidence, reliable information, and sim ON A READING IN MILTON.-In the beginning of Book ilar phrases abound every-where; but the absurdity of II, of Paradise Lost, occurs these lines: "Or where the gorgeous east with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold." Many persons read barbaric as an epithet of pearl and gold. So I have recently seen it quoted by one of England's most distinguished writers. The line should be punctuated so as to make the adjective descriptive of kings. Two considerations require this; the rhythm and the fact. The demi-cæsura can fall only after the word barbaric, if the reader desires to preserve the music of the verse; and according to the prevailing sentiment of the classic nations, only persons were denominated barbaric never gold and S. W. W. A gems. the expression, by whomsoever invented, to say nothing of our having already the nervous old word trustworthy, and its synonym credible, is a sufficient reason for its immediate rejection. To rely is a verb neuter, and can not precede an accusative without the intervention of the preposition on or upon; to make it equivalent to trust, this preposition is indispensable, and therefore if the new word be any thing at all, it is not reliable, but relionable !"-Contributions to Literature, (London, 1854,) p. 278. All this strikes us as somewhat hypercritical. It would be easy to raise a quarrel against a multitude of words on grounds equally tenable. Take, for example, one of this very class, and one used in the very note just quoted indispensable. Here the word dispense has the neuter, or intransitive sense, and is followed by the preposition with. Hence, according to the note above, the compound ought to be indispens-with-able! The sum of the whole seems to be that, in so subtile a thing as language, to fight against a word or phrase that can claim good usage for its support, is simply trifling and futile. QUERY. As a minister I especially am interested to know whether or not we have the word "resurrected" in our language. I do not find it in "Webster's Unabridged," and I suppose it is the standard Dictionary of the English language. I do not like to use "resuscitated" in its place, for it comes far from containing the same meaning. I can not see the propriety of doing without the word "resurrected," when I find so many words in the dictionary of exactly similar terminations with the "ed" affixed. For instance, "attracted," "neglected," "afflicted," "reflected," and "corrected." The last of this list you will see is very much like "resurrected," only it is not quite so long. R. L. C. "DOG-CHEAP."-Dr. Johnson says, under this word, "Cheap as dogs' meat; cheap as the offal bought for dogs." This definition Dr. Webster approves, and copies literally. It is an explanation, however, evidently invented to meet the present form of the word, and awkwardly fails to do even that. It imposes upon the expression a sense unknown to usage, and is entirely at variance with the analogies which hold in the composition of words. The word as it now stands, if composed, as assumed, of dog and cheap, undoubtedly rather means "cheap as dogs;" just as the word "dirt-cheap" certainly means "cheap as dirt." But dogs, however worthless some of them are, have never, as a class, been proverbial for cheapness. And so evidently is this not the meaning attaching to the compound that the lexicographers have, for lack of a better explanation, foisted in the unauthorized notion of "dogs' meat," as being, perhaps, the nearest thing they could think of, to the dogs themselves! Nor will the analogy of such words as the Greek "oxhunger," "ox-fig," and the English “horse-laugh,” “horseradish," apply in this instance. For though, so far as the general meaning is concerned, all these prefixes, ox, horse, dog, have the same notion of intensity, or strengthened expression, underlying their use in their compounds, yet the particular principle governing in the case of the former two, can not be stretched to embrace the latter. In those instances the notion of excess, or grossness, is expressed by using the names of animals, whose size or other qualities most strongly impress the imagination; which can not be the case with the dog. Some other explanation is needed-an explanation which looks beyond the present form of the word. The word cheap is from the Saxon, and means literally bargained, "chaf"-fered: without, of itself, determining whether the bargain be a good or a bad one. It is now always taken in the former sense, just as we sometimes use the word bargain, alone, unqualified by any adjective, to mean a good bargain-"I had it at a bargain." Thus Cowper, describing the timid amateur at a sale of paintings, says: "Oft as the price-deciding hammer falls, Task, Book VI. A few hundred years ago, however, it was different with regard to this absolute use of the word cheap. When the buyers of those times wished to declare a purchase an eligible one, they spoke of it not simply as "cheap," as we, their children, do now, but as "good-cheap," very cheap, or as we, by a metathesis* of the first word, sometimes say, "dog-cheap." A few instances which I have noted in reading, of the use of the original word, in the old English writers, will set this etymology of "dog-cheap " in a clearer light. It will be seen that one of them contains the comparative "better-cheap," which was used to express what we now indicate by the inflection "cheaper." Horne Tooke suggests that "bad-cheap" was in use as well as "goodcheap." This is not improbable in itself, but he cites no instance, and I have met with none. "How many there are which thou canst not make believe that a thousand things are sin, which God damneth for sin all the Scripture throughout; as, to buy as good-cheap as he can, and to sell as dear as he can."-Tyndale, "The Wicked Mammon," p. 122. "Thy face is an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern; but the sack thou hast drunk me, would have bought me lights as good-cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe."-Falstaff to Bardolph-First Henry IV, 3, 3. "Behold, victuals shall be so good-cheap upon earth, that they shall think themselves to be in good case."-Second Esdras XVI, 21. "And here I proffer thee, heire of Linne, Boo!-How many are aware of the origin of the word "Boo!" used to frighten children? It is a corruption of Bob, the name of a fierce Gothic general, the son of Odin, the mention of whose name spread a panic among his enemies. BOOK-KEEPING.-Book-keeping was first introduced into England from Italy, by Peele, in 1569. It was derived from a system of algebra, published by Bueno, at Venice. PHILOSOPHICAL QUERY.-Is it true that "a cannonball projected from the top of a tower, horizontally, will reach the earth as soon as if dropped perpendicularly?" Will not centrifugal force overcome centripetal in the least? Then why does the barometer fall as the wind Mirror of Apothegm, Wit, Repartee, and Anecdote. IMPORTANCE OF A SINGLE LETTER.-The following are illustrations of the strange perversions of sense resulting from the change or the omission of a single letter: During the Mexican war one of the English newspapers hurriedly announced an important item of news from Mexico, that General Pillow and thirty-seven of his men had been lost in a bottle-battle. Some other paper informed the public, not long ago, that a man in a brown surtout was yesterday brought before the police court on a charge of having stolen a small ox-box-from a lady's work-bag. The stolen property was found in his waistcoat pocket. A rat-raft-says another paper, descending the river, came in contact with a steamboat; and, so serious was the injury to the boat, that great exertions were necessary to save it. An English paper once stated that the Russian General Backinoffkowsky was found dead with a long word-sword-in his mouth. It was, perhaps, the same paper that, in giving a descrip tion of a battle between the Poles and Russians, said that LITERATURE AS A BUSINESS AND AS A RELAXATION.Madame de Stael one day said to me, "How sorry I am for Campbell! his poverty so unsettles his mind that he can not write." I replied, "Why does he not take the situation of a clerk? he could then compose verses during his leisure hours." This answer was reckoned very cruel both by Madame de Stael and Mackintosh; but there was really kindness as well as truth in it. When literature is the sole business of life, it becomes a drudgery: when we are able to resort to it only at certain hours, it is a charming relaxation. FASHIONABLE WOMEN.-"Read the biographies of our great and good men and women," says an exchange. "Not one of them had a fashionable mother. They nearly all sprung from plain, strong-minded women, who had about as little to do with fashions as with the changing clouds." POWER OF KINDNESS.-Many years since there lived in one of the central counties of New Jersey, a poor mechanic, eminent for his pious zeal and consistency. He was very much tried by the conduct of a neighbor, who was in the habit of cutting his wood for the week on the Lord's day, and the sound of whose ax continually disturbed the old Christian's meditations. Father H., as he was called, often remonstrated earnestly and kindly with his neighbor, but without any effect. At length he adopted a different course. On Saturday afternoon his neighbor found the old man very busy at his wood-pile, and inquired, in astonishment, what he was doing. "Why," replied father H., "you will persist in cutting your wood on God's holy day, and it grieves me so much that I mean to do it for you this afternoon, so that you will have no temptation to do it to-morrow." The man was at once overcome and exclaimed, "No, you shall not. I will do it myself. Nor will you ever after this have reason to complain of me for chopping wood on the Lord's day." And he was as good as his word. The old man has long since gone to his reward, but this incident lives after him to enforce the divine direction, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." THE POET PUT RIGHT.-A promising boy, not more than five years old, hearing some gentlemen at his father's table discussing the familiar line "An honest man 's the noblest work of God," said he knew it was n't true-his mother was better than any man that was ever made. TRUTHFULNESS.-A lady, piqued by Johnson's scrupulous advocacy of truth, once asserted that little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching. To which Johnson replied, "Well, madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world." ABSENCE OF MIND.-I heard of a clergyman, says Sydney Smith, who went jogging along the road till he came to a turnpike. "What is to pay?" "Pay, sir! for what?" asked the turnpike-man. "Why, for my horse, to be sure." "Your horse, sir! what horse? Here is no horse, sir." "No horse? God bless me," said he suddenly, looking down between his legs, "I thought I was on horseback." Lord Dudley was one of the most absent men I think I ever met in society. One day he met me in the street, and invited me to meet myself. "Dine with me to-day; dine with me, and I will get Sydney Smith to meet you." I admitted the temptation he held out to me, but said I was engaged to meet him elsewhere. HOW TO BE HAPPIER.-A venerable farmer, some eighty years of age, said to a relative who lately visited him: "I have lived on this farm for more than half a century. I have no desire to change my residence as long as I live on earth. I have no desire to be any richer than I now am. I have worshiped the God of my fathers with the same people for more than forty years. During that period I have rarely been absent from the sanctuary on the Sabbath, and have never lost but one communion season. I have never been confined to my bed by sickness a single day. The blessings of God have been richly spread around me, and I made up my mind long ago, that if I wished to be any happier, I must have more religion." CONVERSION AND OLD AGE.-The late Rev. Dr. Bedell, of Philadelphia, in a sermon to young men, stated that he had been a minister over twenty years, and yet he could not remember more than three persons over fifty years of age, who had ever asked the momentous question, "What must I do to be saved ?" FUGITIVE VERSES.-It is on such scraps that witlings feed; and it is hard that the world should judge of our housekeeping from what we fling to the dogs.-Pope to Swift. Sideboard for Children. THE limited space we can devote to this department | Ally, we are, 'cos the Bible says so, and my mother says so. obliges us to make a selection from the items sent to us. which embody a Where the moral We always give preference to those beautiful sentiment or a good moral. is objectionable, or sacred things are used in a light way, or where the manner or words express something that is not beautiful in a child, we deem the communication unsuited to our design. I have a little brother. When he was about three years old there was a butcher accustomed to leave meat at our house, who bore the mark of being intemperate in his face. One morning he not making his appearance as usual, little Albert ran up to his mother and inquired, "Ma, why do n't that man come with the killed cow? I mean that man with the bloody sore eye wink." W. F. L. THE following was lately sent to us from Virginia: On the evening of July 30, 1856, a very dark and threatening cloud arose in the south-west, The lightning and thunder were constant and terribly grand. The wind blew vehemently. Willie's ma was letting down the windows, while he, in great distress, followed her from room to room, exclaiming, "O, ma, I want to pray the good Lord not to strike the house with lightning," urging her, at the same time, to tell him what to say. She told him that she had at other times taught him how to pray, and that now he must pray himself. He immediately fell down on his knees at the bedside and very devoutly prayed, "Our Father who art in heaven," etc. Then, after repeating a few appropriate words dictated by his ma, he rose up calmly and composed, his countenance the meanwhile wearing an expression of confidence which seemed to say, Now I am safe. Such is a child's confidence in the efficacy of W. S. B. prayer. New Albany, Ia.-Little Rachel L. was in the room where her father was busily engaged preparing a sermon. A visitor came in to whom Mr. L. said, "I am endeavoring to prepare a sermon on the text, 'Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.'" Rachel looked up and said with evident concern, "Pa, why did n't he run, then he could n't have took him." In the midst of a violent thunder-storm little — W.whose first name I have forgotten-took refuge in the parlor. His mother entered the room and found him on his knees praying. The first words she heard were these: "O, Lord, you may thunder as much as you please, but pray do n't let it lighten." C. B. D. Lawrenceville, Ill.-A little boy of my acquaintance, whose father has a field of wheat containing two kinds, the other day was heard to call one of them "lady wheat." His mother asked him why he called it by that name. The little fellow replied, "Because one of them has beard, and it has not." S. My little brother, when about five years of age, was disputing with his playmate, Tommy C, concerning the origin of the genus homo. Said Tommy, "We're all made of dust, Ally." The reply was to the effect that "Ally" doubted the statement and requested further light on the subject. "Why, We are made of different kinds of dust, I guess. I'm made of brick-dust. What are you made of?" Ally.-In undisguised contempt and with great emphasis-"Well, I was let down from heaven." R. G. L. A BROTHER sends us the following from Indiana: Little Annie, my niece, is just on the hither edge of three years. She has a younger sister, Lily, and there was a brother Charlie, but he has gone on. Annie talked in this wise: "Lily, little brother Charles 's gone to heab'n. He's singin', 'There is a happy land.' You be a good girl and you may go to heab'n some time and set by little Charlie, but you must set ställ !” J. H. L. Gravesville, N. Y.-There was a storm. Winds roared amid the forest-trees, thunders boomed, and lightnings played upon an angry sky. Suddenly little E. was discovered to be absent. A search was instituted, which resulted in finding her out in the drenching rain, kneeling upon the wet grass, her little hands clasped, and her sweet eyes raised to the stormy heav ens. Upon being asked the cause of her strange conduct, she replied very quietly and seriously, "I was hearing God talk." She had been told that thunder was the voice of God. S. Kansas Territory.-I thought perhaps you might not reject a scrap from this land of adventure. My little baby girl, who is just two years old, came into the house with her little sister and brother a day or two ago. They had been out upon the side of our beautiful blue mound culling the flowers, with which she seemed delighted. I said to her, "Mary, dear, do you know who made those beautiful flowers?" She instantly answered, "God did, ma, and I do love God, ma, for making me these pity fowers." R. M. S. WE take the two following from Mrs. Sigourney's "Sayings of the Little Ones:" A precocious child was ambitious of keeping up with older classes at school, and was in some respects successful. During an exercise in orthography and definitions, the teacher said to her: "Spell the word ferment, tell its meaning, and place it accurately in some sentence or phrase." Taking pride in always answering without hesitation, she replied rapidly: "F-e-r-m-e-n-t; ferment is to work; I like to ferment in the garden." Little Paul came to spend an hour with his cousin Ellen. He was usually a good boy. But on this occasion a strange change came over him. Nothing pleased him; and from dis satisfaction he proceeded to cross words and aggressive meas ures. He pulled the new doll from his cousin and threw it angrily on the floor. He had even his hand raised to strike Ellen when his aunt came in. "What! this can not be the good little Paul, whom we are always glad to see. Is it not some bad child wearing his clothes and calling himself by a wrong name?" Quite crest-fallen he desired to go home. He felt ashamed that every one should be glad that his visit was over. Some time elapsed ere he repeated it. Then he went directly to his aunt and said with a very pleasant face: "Good Paul has come to see cousin Ellen. Do not say any more about the bad Paul. I am not acquainted with him." AN interesting anecdote is told of a little Swedish girl who had given evidence that a saving change had been wrought upon her. She was walking with her father one night, under the starry sky, intently meditating upon the glories of heaven. At last, looking up to the sky, she said, "Father, I have been thinking if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what will the right side be!" |