9. Seen through the telescope, the moon presents a bleak and desolate appearance. No indications are visible of the existence of either animal or vegetable. Traces of volcanic agency are everywhere apparent; but no volcanoes have as yet been discovered actually at work, nor is there any sign of recent volcanic action.

Syzygies is a Greek word, meaning conjunction or combination. 1. Give names of all the "heavenly bodies" you can think of. 2. Write four sentences, one of them containing a transitive verb, another an intransitive, another a regular, and another an irregular. 3. Parse: "The month derives its name from the moon."

I. THE moon, being the nearest to us of all the heavenly bodies, has always been to men an object of the keenest interest. In primitive times Divine honours were paid to the majestic light, which seemed to rule over the night as the sun over the day, holding high festival nightly in heaven among her subject stars.

2. According to the "Edda," or sacred book of the ancient Scandinavians, Mundilföri was a god, who had two children, Mâni, or the moon, who was a son, and Sol, or the sun, who was a daughter. In Hindu

mythology, also, Chandra or Soma, the moon, is a male deity, and is generally represented as wearing white garments, with a mace in one hand, and riding in a chariot drawn by ten horses or antelopes.

3. Other nations, such as the ancient Mexicans, the Lithuanians, the Arabians, and even our own ancestors the Anglo-Saxons, or English of the times before the Norman Conquest, held the moon to be a male, the sun a female; just as in the German language the moon is of the masculine gender, the sun is feminine, to this day.

4. Modern English has in this matter followed the classical mythology, according to which Phoebus and Sol are gods, and Selene, Luna, and Diana, all of them different names for the moon, are goddesses.

5. According to the ancient Greeks, Selene or Phoebe, the moon-whom the Romans identified with their own goddess Luna or Diana,-was the sister of the sun and of the dawn, and was known to them as a very beautiful goddess, with long wings and a golden diadem, who rode across the heavens in a chariot drawn by two white horses.

6. On the introduction of Christianity, "the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven" were fain to divest themselves of their ancient state as objects of human worship, in order to assume the position of right belonging to them in the economy of nature.

7. In the natural world the moon is a power of the highest order. Perhaps it is no figure of speech but in some sense the literal truth to say that, "the winds and the waves obey her."

8. In the generation of wind there is some reason to believe that the moon combines with other influences, to draw the atmosphere after her in heaps or drive it backwards in receding volume, according to her varying phases. Her action on the waters of the ocean in causing tides is well-known and beyond dispute.

9. On plants, which have been kept in a dark place till they have drooped and withered, recent experiments have shown that moonlight exerts an influence, reviving their exhausted strength, and enabling them to put forth new leaves and resume in some sort their natural vigour in answer to her friendly smile.

10. The moon's influence upon insane persons is open to serious question, notwithstanding that the word "lunatics," or "moonstruck," testifies to the widespread belief that the periodical attacks, to which the insane are sometimes subject, correspond with the changing phases of the moon.

II. Certainly it is not borne out by the records kept in asylums for lunatics, where the illnesses of patients are carefully recorded as they occur, so that "lunacy," or moon-disease, may probably be added to the long and gradually lengthening list of vulgar

errors.

C.

1. Write out any short fable you ever heard; such as, the Fox and the Crow, the Dog and his Shadow.

2. Write sentences containing conjunctive and disjunctive conjunctions.

3. Parse: "In primitive times Divine honours were paid to the

ABOUT SURNAMES: A CONVERSATION.

Teacher. You want a proper subject for a conversation? Suppose we sit down and talk about the names we bear. Your own name is

Scholar. John Jones, sir, at your service.

Teacher. Civilly answered.

Smith.

And mine is Peter

Scholar. Had all persons always two names, to begin with?

Teacher. Probably not. At first there would be but one name to distinguish him from other persons, and this would answer to our Christian name. Among primitive peoples the Christian name is still the only one, with the addition of the patronymic.

Scholar. And what is a patronymic ?

Teacher. A father's name. In the remoter parts of Norway to this day a person is known by his own. name and his father's, as Christian Magnusson, the son of Magnus, and Magnus Olafson, the son of Olaf. The great Gustavus Vasa was Gustav Ericsson, because his father's name was Eric. So the Russians even in the Imperial house keep up the custom. The

Emperor Nicolas was Nicolai Alexandrovitch; and his son was Alexander Nicolaivitch.

Scholar. Then one class of surnames would originate in patronymics?

Teacher. Exactly so, and at one point or another the patronymic became fixed as the designation of the family. George Johnson bequeathed the name of Johnson to his children and his children's children; and in some cases the Johnson came to be shortened into Jones, the Atkinson to Atkins, the Dickenson to Dickens.

Scholar. At what time was the use of fixed family surnames introduced?

Teacher. In England probably not before the latter part of the tenth century, when the Normans, who were then flocking into England, brought with them the names of their family chateaux, or villages, as their designation, with the preposition "de,” or "of," before them, and these in time were Anglicized: D'Anvers into Danvers, D'Angerville into Dangerfield, and De la Bere into Bere. But these were persons of "gentle" or noble descent. The assumption of surnames by common people is of later date.

Scholar. And they would take them—

Teacher. Sometimes from the farm, or homestead, or natural features of the country, where they lived, as Wood, Marsh, Dale, or Mountain. In some few cases the preposition "at" is still retained, as in Atwood, A'Court and Nash, which is a corruption of atten-ash," or, "at the ash."