memorial for perpetuating the remembrance of an event; a tomb or pillar. MOORE, THOMAS, an Irish poet and songwriter, b. 1780, d. 1852. He was a great master of elegant diction, and elaborated his productions highly. Adoration, 76.

The Carrier-Pigeon, 137.
The Flying-Fish, 217.

The Bauyan-Tree, 311. MOORS; a class of the inhabitants of Western Africa, particularly of the States of Fez and Morocco. They are of Arabian origin, and strict Mahometans. MOOT. The root of this word is the same as that of to meet. Moot-points are points to be mooted or debated; disputable points.

MORE RICHER (p. 372). The double comparison, often used in Shakspeare's time, is now regarded as ungrammatical. MORE, SIR THOMAS, a celebrated chancellor of England, who succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as lord high chancellor in 1530, and filled the office three years with scrupulous integrity. For his conscientious refusal to take the oath of supremacy in favor of that brutal and bloody-minded king, Henry VIII., he was beheaded, July 6, 1535, at the age of fifty-five. He was the author of the celebrated political romance of "Utopia."

MOSES, the great legislator of the Hebrews,

was born in Egypt about 1600 B. C. The moral law, embraced in the ten commandments, as given to him from Mount Sinai, continues to find its response in the inmost conscience and highest convictions of the pure in heart.

MOULT, to shed the feathers. MOUNTFORD, WM., Extract from, 367. MULTIFORM, having various forms. Multi, in Lat., is the plural of multus, many. MULTIFA'RIOUS, having great diversity. MUNDANE (Lat. mundus, the world), belonging to this world; earthly. MUNICIPAL, pertaining to a town, city or district; to a state or kingdom; municipality, the government of a city, or it may mean a district corresponding to a ward.

MURAT (Murah), Joachim, one of the bravest of Napoleon's generals; b. in France in 1771. Raised to the throne of Naples in 1808, subsequent reverses placed him in the power of a court-martial, by whose order he was shot, Oct. 13, 1815. MUSES. In the Greek and Roman mythology, nymphs or inferior divinities, supposed to preside over literature, science and the liberal arts. Originally these were supposed to be only three: Memory, Meditation and Song. Their number was ultimately extended to nine. See Amuse.

MYSORE', a principality of South India, the Rajah of which is tributary to the British. MYTHOLOGY (Gr. mutho3, fable, and logos, discourse). By the mythology of a people,

we understand the collective body of its

traditions respecting its gods and other fabulous preternatural beings.

NAPOLEON. See Bonaparte. NATURALIST, one versed in the science of nature, or of the laws impressed on bodied or beings by divine power.

NEEDLE. The small pointed piece of steel, touched with a loadstone, used in the mariner's compass, is thus called. Mod◄ ern science has explained the variation which surprised Columbus and his men. NEIGHBOR. The Saxon original simply means a boor, or countryman, living nigh; a nigh-boor.

NEPTUNE, in Roman mythology, the deity who presided over the sea.

NEWTON, SIR ISAAC, the greatest of English philosophers, was born in Lincolnshire, Dec. 25th, 1642; died 1727. His three great discoveries, of fluxions, the nature of light and colors, and the laws of gravitation, were conceived before the com pletion of his twenty-fourth year. By witnessing the fall of an apple in his garden, he was led into a train of reflection, which resulted in his theory of grav.itation. He was a sincere Christian, as well as a profound mathematician. Čertain passages in the prophecies of the Bible led him to infer that men would one day be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Voltaire, the French scoffer, who did not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, sneered at Newton for this, as a credulous "old dōtard." But who is the dotard now, when to travel fifty miles an hour on our railroads is a common achievement !

NICHT GUT. As nearly as the pronunciation of these words can be expressed in English, it is, neekht goot. See p. 181. NIEBUHR, BARTHOLD GEORGE, the historian of Rome, was born in Denmark, 1776; died 1830.

Perseverance under Failure, 369. NIEMEN (Němen), a river of Russian Poland.

NIEPCI, a French artist, who preceded Da guerre in certain experiments, which were preliminary to the invention of the Daguerreotype. See p. 379.

NILE, a large river of Africa, which flows through Nubia and Egypt; supposed to rise in the Mountains of the Moon; but its source has not yet been fixed with certainty. The proverb, p. 65, Fling him into the Nile, &c., is meant to characterize those brave spirits who even from adversity extract something good; who are never so baffled by misfortune as not to make it surrender something for their benefit, if not to the body, to the soul. NODE (Lat. nodus, a knot), in Astronomy, the point where the orbit of a planet in tersects the ecliptic. NOR DID NOT.

In English this use of a double negative is ungrammatical, excep when an affirmative meaning is intended. In Shakspeare's time the rule was often unheeded.

NOT TO MYSELF A ɔN 118. NOVEMBER (from nosem, aine), the eleventh month of the Julian year (so called from Julius Cæsar, who reformed the Calendar); but the ninth month in the old Roman year, which began with March.

OBLA'TION (Lat. oblatio, an offering) means, properly, an offering presented to the church. OB'SOLETE, gone into misuse; neglected. OCTOBER (Lat. octo, eight), the eighth month

of the old Roman year; the tenth of ours. ODD. According to Trench, odd is properly owed; an "odd" glove, or an "odd" shoe, is one that is "owed" to another, or to which another is "owed" for the making of a pair-just as we speak of a man being "singular," wanting, that is, his match. The plural form, odds, is often used to signify the excess of a thing, inequality, &c.

ODE. The Greeks called every lyrical poem

adapted to singing an ode. In the modern sense of the word, the ode is distinguished from the song by greater length and variety, and by not being necessarily adapted to music; and it is distinguished from the ballad by its admitting narrative, if at all, only as subsidiary to the expression of sentiment, or of imaginary thought. Bee Lyric.

Ode to Peace, 137.

Ode to the Passions, 402.

Ode on Cecilia's Day, 416. OMNIFA'RIOUS, of all varieties, forms, or kinds; omni being Latin for all. ONE-PENNIED, having only a penny. Words

are often compounded, by poetical license, which it would not be proper to use in prose.

OPAQUE (0-pak'), dark; not transparent. OPIE, AMELIA, On False Pride, 57. OPTICAL (Gr. optomai, I see), belonging to optics, which is that branch of physical science which treats of light and vision. ORATORIO, an Italian word, from the Lat. oratorium, a small chapel, which again is derived from orare, to pray. A sacred musical composition, the subject of which is generally taken from Scripture. JR'ATOR. The Latin word os, the mouth (genitive, oris), whence orare, to speak, is the root of this word, so that the literal meaning is, one who makes or utters a speech, 383.

OR BIT (Lat. orbis, a circle) is the path which any celestial body describes by its proper motion.

ORDER OF THE DAY (p. 136), in deliberative assemblies, the particular business previously assigned for the day. ORGANIC, pertaining to an organ or organs. In organic disease, the structure of an organ is morbidly altered; in functional disease, the secretions or functions only are altered.

Dar'ON, one of the forty-eight ancient con

stellations mapped out by Ptolemy, the astronomer. It is situated in the southern hemisphere with respect to the ecliptic,

and contains seven stars, three of which form what is called the belt of Orion. ORPHEUS, one of the old bards of the Greeks, who is fabled to have tamed the wildest animals by his lyre. There is a legend that his wife, Euryd'ice, having died, he followed her to the infernal abode of Pluto. and, by the charms of his music, won her back from the inexorable deity. An Orphean song is one that pleases like the strains of Orpheus.

OSCILLATION, a motion backward and forward, like that of a pendulum. OS'SIAN, the name of a supposed Scottish bard, who lived in the third century. His productions were first given to the world in an English version by James M'Pherson, in 1760, with the assurance that these were translations made by himself from ancient Erse manuscripts. There was a long controversy as to the genuineness of these poems, which was finally settled by the decision of the Highland Society, in 1805, that they had not been able to obtain any one poem the same in title and tenor with the poems of Ossian. It is believed, however, that there was much traditional foundation for the poems as they now exist. For extracts, see pp 47, 48.

OVIEDO (d-ve-a'do), a city in the north-west of Spain, having a fine cathedral. OWL. The name of this dissonant nightbird, according to Trench, has the same origin with "howl," differing from it only in the omission of the aspirate letter. OXFORD, a city of England, having a university founded or revived by King Alfred; which university consists of twenty colleges, each with separate students and teachers, but all united under one government. An Oxonian is one who studies at Oxford.

OXYDA'TION, the act of combining with oxy

gen.

OXYGEN (Gr. oxys, acid, gennaein, to generate). This important element was discovered by Dr. Priestley, in 1774. It was called vital air, &c., from its property of supporting combustion and animal life a term changed to oxygen from its property of giving acidity to compounds in which it predominates. See pp. 361, 362.

PAD'UA, an old city of the north of Italy, strongly fortified, and now held by Austria. It has a once celebrated university. PA GOD, or PAGO'DA, the East Indian iame for a temple containing an idol. Sometimes it signifies the idol itself. PALACE is from Pala'tium, the court of the kings and emperors of ancient Rome. The Pala'tium was so named because i was built on the Palatine Hill. Palatine is supposed to have been originally Balatin, from the sound of the cattle which in the early days of Rome were kept there. Thus from the lowing of a cow we hav› his beautiful word palace

PAL'ADIN, a knight-errant, one who wandered about the earth to give proofs of his valor and gallantry. It is doubtful whether the word has a similar origin with palace, or whether it is from palus, a wooden spear or lance.

PALATINE. See Palace.

PALEY, WM., an eminent English divine, b. 1743, d. 1805; one of the clearest reasoners on the subject of religious evidences. PALLIATE. This word is derived from the Latin pallium, a cloak, and its original meaning is to cloak, to cover; though now to "palliate" our faults is not to hide them altogether, but to seek to diminish their guilt in part. PALMY'RA, a Syrian city, once called Tadmor (the city of palms), of which Palmy'ra is a Latin translation. It was situated in a valley in the midst of a beautiful palm-grove in the desert, and was adorned with magnificent palaces, of which the ruins still excite admiration. PA'LOS, a small town in Spain, from which Columbus sailed on his first voyage of discovery, and where there is a convent at which he once begged bread for his child.

PANAMA, an ancient seaport city of New Granada, S. America, on the gulf of the same name, which is an inlet of the Pacific ocean. It has been nearly Americanized, since the Californian emigration. Population, six thousand. PANEGYRIC (pan-e-gyr'ic), an harangue in praise of some person or persons. PANORAMA (Gr. pan, all, and orama, view), a picture in which all the objects of nature and art that are visible from a certain point are represented on the interior surface of a round or cylindrical wall. PAP'UA, an extensive island separated southward by Torres Strait from the north point of Australia.

PARABLE (Gr. paraballo, I compare), a comparison; in Scripture, a short tale conveying some moral or religious truth. It differs from the fable in being taken from the province of reality.

PARADISE LOST, Extracts from, 348. See Milton.

PARADOX (Gr. para, against, doxa, opinion), any proposition contrary to received opinion, or at variance with common

sense.

PARALLEL'OGRAM, a plain four-sided figure, of which the opposite sides are parallel. PARAPHRASE (Gr. para, beside, or near to, phrazein, to speak), an exposition that holds the sense, but changes the words of the thing expounded; a free or altered translation.

PARASITE (Gr. para, beside, sitos, food), one who takes food with another; hence, a flatterer, a fawner. Parasitical plants are those which feed on the juices of other plants or of trees. A parasitic animal is one that lives on some other body. PAREN'THESIS, Uses of the, 49, 54. PARIAN, pertaining to Paros, an island of the Grecian Archipelago, famous for its

white marble; whence parian may mean in poetry, white. A delicate species of white porcelain of modern manufacture is called Parian.

PARIS, the capital of France, the second city in Europe for population, and the fourth for extent.

PARK, SIR A., On Christianity, 313. PARLEY, to treat with by words; the French word parler means to speak. The proverb (p. 66), Virtue that parleys, &c., imposes upon us the danger of treating with temptation for a moment. The ouly safety is in instant and final resistance. PARLIAMENT (pår/le-mēnt), from the French parler, to speak. The name of the supreme legislative assembly of Great Britain and Ireland.

PARLOR. This word is also from the French parler, to speak; and originally meant the room out of which nuns used to speak through an iron grating.

PARNAS'SUS, in mythology, a mountain in ancient Greece, sacred to Apollo, the god of music and song, and to the Muses. From its side flowed the Castalian spring, the fancied source of inspiration to poets. PARR, THOMAS, an extraordinary instance of longevity, was born in England in 1483. He labored in the field after he was 130 years old. He died at the age of 152, through the change and dissipation attendant on going to the court of Charles I. PARTICULAR LADY, THE, 133. PASCAL, BLAISE, born in France 1623, died 1662. He was equally eminent as a geometrician, a writer, and a pious Christian.

PATRICIANS (derived from patres, fathers) were the first order or nobility of the Roman people.

PECULATION, the embezzlement of publie money or goods by a public officer. PEDAGOGUE; a Greek word, from pais, boy, and agōgos, leader; originally, at Athens, the slave who went with a boy from home to school and back again; in modern usage, an inferior teacher of boys. PELISSE (pe-lees'), originally a furred robe; now a silk habit for ladies. The word is from the Latin peilis, a skin. PELTING, in Shakspeare, paltry. PENAFLOR. The Spanish pronunciation of this word is Pa-nyah-flor'. PENAL (from the same root as pain), enact ing punishment.

PEND CLOUS (Lat. pendeo, I hang), hang ing, or swinging in suspense. PERPETUITY, indefinite duration. PHENOMENON, a Greek word, the past parti ciple of the verb phainein, to appear In Natural Philosophy, the term is usually applied to those appearances of nature of which the cause is not immediately obvious. Remember that the plural of this word is phenomena: do not, as many blunderers do, use this as the singular form.

PHILANTHROPY (Gr. phileo, I love, and anthropos, a man), a general term for a benevolent feeling towards the whole hu

man race.

It is opposed to misanthropy

(misos, hate). PHILOLOGY (Gr. phileo, I love, and logos, speech), in its restricted sense, the knowledge and study of languages. PHILOSOPHY (Gr. philéo, I love, and sophia, wisdom), a general term, signifying the sum total of systematic human knowledge. The philosopher is distinguished from the sophist; the former is a seeker of wisdom, the latter presumptuously conceives himself to be in the possession of wisdom.

PHOTOGRAPHY (Gr. phos, photos, light, grapho, I write, or I describe), the art by which daguerreotypes are procured. See p. 379.

PHRASE (Gr. phrasis, speech), a mode or form of speech; an expression, or combination of words.

PHYSIOLOGY (Gr. phusis, nature, and lego, I discourse), the science of things generated or alive; the doctrine of vital phe

nomena.

PIANO-FORTE (pe-ăn'o-för-te), a well-known musical instrument, invented by Schroeder, a German, and introduced into England in 1766. The name is compounded of two Italian words, signifying soft and loud.

PICHEGRU (pronounced Pe-sh-gru), Charles, a French general, born 1761; arrested in 1804 for attempting the overthrow of the consular government, and soon afterwards found dead by strangulation in his bed. PILATE, PONTIUS, the Roman governor of Judæa in the time of our Saviour. He and his wife both endeavored to deliver Jesus from the Jews; and when the latter persisted in claiming his life, Pilate caused water to be brought, washed his hands before all the people, and publicly declared himself innocent of the blood of that just person. Yet, at the same time, he delivered Jesus up to the soldiers, that they might crucify him. PILGRIMAGE, a long journey; properly a journey undertaken to some spot for devotional purposes. The Scholar's Pilgrimage (p. 61) is a playful allegorical description of the progress of the schoolboy, first through the small and capital letters of the alphabet, then through spelling, writing, ciphering, grammar, &c., in the direction of the Temple of Learning. PIL'LORY (Fr. pillier, a pillar), a wooden engine on which offenders were formerly exposed to public view and insult. PISTOLE (pistole'), a gold coin of Spain, worth about $3.60.

PIZARRO, FRANCIS, the conqueror of Peru, was born in 1475, at Truxillo, in Spain; was assassinated in 1541. See p. 417. PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, pronounced plas de la Cong-cōr-d: the a as in father, the e as in her. A public square in Paris.

PLAINTIFF (from the Fr. plaintif, complaining), one who commences a law-suit. PLANGENT (plan'jent). The Latin word plangens means beating, striking. It

has not yet been introduced into Eng

lish.

PLA'TO, an illustrious Grecian philosopher who taught the immortality of the sot. He was born 430 B. C.; died 347 B. C. His system of philosophy is known as the Platonic. He was the disciple of Soc

rates.

PLEASAUNCE, an ancient form of the word pleasure.

PLE-BE'IAN (Lat. plebs, the common people). The plebeians were the free citizens of Rome, not belonging to the patrician class.

PLOUGHMAN, THE, a poem, 265. PLUTARCH (Plutark), a Greck biographer, born A. D. 50, died about 120. His "Lives of Illustrious Men," though not scrupulously accurate, may always be read with profit.

POEMS, MISCELLANEOUS, 358. POETRY. The origin of the word is the Greek poieo, I make; so that poets are makers. Genuine poetry must ever be in accordance with the beautiful and the true. It has a natural alliance with our best affections; with our highest spiritual aspirations; and "through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life."

On Reading Poetry, 52. PoICTIERS (the French pronunciation is. pwah-tee-a', the first a as in water; -on p. 100, Miss Lamb would seem to mean to have it pronounced as written). An ancient town of France. See Edward. POLICE (po-lees). This word is from the Gr. polis, a city, and means the system for securing the health, order, &c., of a city or town; also a body of city officers. POPE, ALEXANDER, a celebrated English poet, born in London in 1688, died 1744. He was deformed, and small in size. He is at the head of what many critics call the artificial school of poetry; but his great merits are likely to be recognized while the English language remains what it is.

Extracts from, 286, 309, 411. Epistle to Arbuthnot, 435. PORSON, RICHARD, an eminent Greek scholar and critic, b. in England, 1759; d. 1808. Anecdote of, 86.

PORTICO, a projection supported by columns placed before a building; also, a covered walk.

POST FIX, in grammar a letter, syllable, or word, added to the end of another word; a suffix. The word is compounded of the Latin post, after, and fixi, I have fixed. See prefix.

PoST HUMOUS (Lat. post, after, and humum, the ground, after interment, or burial), done, had, or published, after one's death. Pronounced, posthumus.

P. M., the initial letters of the Latin words post meridiem, after noon.

P. S., the initial letters of the Latin words post scriptum, after written. A post script is something added to a letter after it is signed by the writer.