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ORIGINS.

KERCHIEF. We find the following, in reference to the origin of this word, in Bentley's Miscellany :-'The abuse of terms by perversion or corruption, is common to all languages, and abounds in our own. We retain phrases whose first uses are forgotten, and apply them to uses foreign to their original purport; or we corrupt them in their descent till they come to mean something totally different. In some cases we contrive, with remarkable ingenuity, to combine both these forms of verbal misdemeanour. Take, for example, the word kerchief. There is no doubt that this word was derived from the French couvre chef, and obviously meant a covering for the head. Brevity converted couvre chef into kerchief. This was well enough for colloquial purposes, and no great harm done. By degrees, however, having occasion to enlarge the application of the word for our convenience, we flung etymology to the winds, and coined the word handkerchief—which, broken up into its constituent parts, means literally a head-cover for the hand. The force of absurdity would seem to be incapable of going beyond this; but worse remains behind. Having reconciled our consciences to handkerchief, there was no difficulty in finding kerchiefs in like manner for all possible purposes; and, accordingly, we have manufactured a pockethandkerchief, which means a head cover for the hand to go into the pocket, and a neckhandkerchief, or head cover for the hand to be tied round the neck. The kerchief itself, when it was used in its original simplicty, attracted as much admiration as the miniver cap, which was made of velvet; or the shiptire, an open flaunting head-dress, decorated with streamers; or the French hood, consisting of gauze or muslin, stretching from the back of the head to the forehead, and leaving the hair exposed; or those cauls or nets of gold thread which were brought into England in the time of Elizabeth, and, after a long interregnum, have been recently revived. The kerchief had, in some respects, the advantage of all these, being capable of every variety of coquetish forms, and affording its wearer the choice of all possible combinations of colour.'

COIN.-The word coin, in French, signifies corner; and coin is thought to have derived its name from this circumstance, because in ancient times money was square, thus having corners. The word properly

signifies a wedge, as the Latin cuneus; and some think that the wedge, ingot, or lingot (linguetta), originated either from the shape in which the ingots were often cut, when divided for the purpose of being weighed out in payment; or else from the wedge or chisel with which, in trade, these ingots were cut to the precise weight required.

BARBERS' POLES.-In the reign of Henry VIII. (who confirmed the charter of the College of Surgeons), there were very few surgeons; in fact, only ten in number, who confined themselves entirely to the profession of surgery, and their portraits have been handed down to us in one of the finest efforts of Holbein's pencil. This painting is now in the possession of the Barbers' Company. Up to that time, a co-partnership existed between barbers and surgeons. The sign of the residence of one of this fraternity was a long pole, affixed to the door-post, as at the present time. From an account in the British Apollo, this sign had its origin in ancient Rome, where

"Twas ordered that a huge long pole, With bason deck'd, should grace the hole,

To guide the wounded.

But when they ended all their wars,
And men grew out of love with scars,
Their trade decaying-to keep swimming
They join'd the other trade of trimming;
And to their poles, to publish either,
Thus twisted both their trades together.

PLANTS.-WHEAT was brought from the central table-land of Thibet, where its representative yet exists as grass, with small mealy seeds.-RYE exists wild in Siberia.— BARLEY grows wild in the mountains of Himalaya.-OATS wild in Northern Africa, -MILLET, one species is a native of India, another of Egypt and Abyssinia.—MAIZE was brought from America.-CANARY SEED from the Canary Islands.-RICE from South Africa, whence it was taken to India, and from thence to Europe and America.--PEASE are of unkown origin.-LENTIL grows wild on the shores of the Mediterranean.— VETCHES are natives of Germany.—CHICKPEA was brought from the South of Europe. The GARDEN BEAN from the East Indies.The HORSE BEAN from the Caspian Sea.The LUPIN from the Levant.-BUCK WHEAT came originally form Siberia and Turkey.— RAPE SEED and CABBAGE SEED grow wild in Sicily and Naples.

LONDON: PRINTED BY JOHN KENNEDY 35 PORTMAN PLACE, MAIDA HILL.

SOUL'S

THE

WELFARE.

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FEMALE EDUCATION.

"VAIN man," say the Scriptures, "would be wise, though man be born as the wild ass's colt." There is no potential mood in Hebrew, and we are left, in texts like the above, to use that auxiliary verb which will best agree with the scope of the passage; and here, doubtless, the term "should," rather than would," ought to have been used;" the verse then will read, "Vain man should be wise." He is naturally vain, or empty, and as destitute of knowledge as a wild ass's colt, still he has the capacity and the means of acquiring information, and ought to become "wise." The monopoly of knowledge is the most iniquitous and cruel of all. Far less wicked would it be for these exclusionists to decree that the victims of their injustice should be deprived of one of their eyes, than to doom the immortal spirit to darkness. A thousand times preferable would it be to have but one eye, than to have as many eyes as Argus, and at the same time to possess within nothing but an ill-informed mind, to look out through those organs. "The light of the body is the eye," not the material sense, but the intelligent soul, which uses it as a medium of information. When the spirit that looks out through the eye is well-informed and well-regulated, the whole body, or whole man, is full of light; everything in nature, providence, and redemption, is luminous and captivating; but let the mental" eye be dark or ignorant," and how tremendous is that darkness! The opponents of education would fain extinguish this mental vision. Woe unto them, for they "take away the key of knowledge." No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it into a secret place or under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light." "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord," and he has not lighted it up that it should be extinguished or put under a bushel. All the enemies of knowledge are fighting against God, they endeavour to put out the lamp which he has created, and thus are guilty, not of maiming the body, but of attempting to blind the immortal soul.

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There are not wanting those who, while they will admit that there should be some improvement in the education of males, deny the necessity of extending its benefits to females. Nothing could be more erroneous or injurious than this sentiment. A very little reflection on the duties of woman would show, that if either of the sexes ought to have a superior education, that boon is particularly the birthright of females. The care of children, through one of the most important periods of their existence, is committed to females. Character is often stamped for life in the nursery. It may be said that little information is requisite to teach and train children during their early years; but those who talk thus must be profoundly ignorant themselves. To simplify knowledge; to analyze words, thoughts, and objects; to give an intelligent answer to all the enquiries of that little philosopher, in whose bosom God has kindled a burning desire, to know everything that a candidate for two worlds—

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time and eternity-ought to know; and to break ideas, if I may so speak, into morsels so small that there is no danger of injuring the infantile capacity; to accomplish all this requires knowledge and information of no ordinary charac

ter.

To teach the over-grown boys and girls, whose mental powers have been paralyzed by ignorant mothers, silly nursemaids, and brainless schoolmasters; or to instruct the larger blockheads, the six-feet babies of our day, "the genial current of whose souls has been long ago frozen," is a task for which any uninformed, superannuated woman is qualified; but to receive the divine, unsophisticated, immortal spirit, as it comes fresh and pure from the hand of the Creator, to take it, and nurse it first for earth and then for heaven, requires the deepest learning and the profoundest philosophy. If what has been called the educated people, who have hitherto been sent forth from our public schools, may be taken as specimen of what such seminaries can do in fitting man for this world or the next, then may we safely conclude, that any imbecile woman would do for the presidency in these seats of learning. Nay, we may say more, we may assert that they have long been governed by worse than aged woman: superannuated old men, or, still more deplorable, men superannuated before their minds had arrived at maturity, have had the control of such institutions, and have used their influence, not to educate, but to paralyze, the divine intellects committed to their care. Would we only change our system, and introduce the well-informed philosophical instructress into the nursery, we might then set at defiance all the mischief with which the chartered ignorance of many a public school threatens the land. One of the earliest developements of thought is inquiry, and the whole future life, in a very great measure, depends upon the manner in which the demands of the young philosopher are answered; and, therefore, those who preside over the nursery should be the best-informed persons which the country can produce. To encase the infant mind in ignorance and error, more impenetrable than the thickest coat of mail, and thus envelope it like a tortoise in a shell, but without the power of enlarging its covering; and to expect that either the spirit, thus fettered, or any of its tutors, all of whom are in equal bondage with itself, will be able to dissolve these worse than adamantine bonds, is to anticipate miracles for which we have no warrant, either in past history or the promises of revelation. But, alas! the gem is not merely hid in the ocean; it there becomes encrusted, and when by some chance it is thrown up on the shore, it cannot be distinguished from the commonest pebble. How many a genius of the first magnitude has been doomed to eternal obscurity by the misdirection of the nursery! Its first impetus and the course it consequently took, were both wrong, and it became one of those wandering stars for which is reserved "the blackness of darkness for ever." Many a vigorous mind, after the toil of years, has found it impossible to free itself entirely from those mental bonds in which it was so firmly swathed by the ignorance and prejudice of its early guides. Surely it is high time that our intellectual and moral slave-trade and slavery should cease. But, alas! in this department of benevolence our Clarksons and Wilberforces are comparatively few. Indeed, it may be confidently affirmed, that spiritual emancipation will never take place until the intellectual and moral dignity of woman is recognised. Females of all classes must be better educated; the office of nurserymaid must be made a profession, and the nursery become a miniature university, before we can indulge the hope that the human mind will arrive at maturity.

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Not only in the nursery is the influence of woman predominant, but in every future stage of life, and in almost every relation, domestic, civil, and religious, her control is felt, and therefore the necessity of her receiving a superior education is placed beyond a doubt. As the companion of man, as the presiding genius of the domestic circle, as the mother of the next generation, and as one who will, directly or indirectly, exercise no common power in the State and the church, her tuition ought to be of the first order. Her sex and her charms open to her a door of admission to every degree of society in the land. She may be the daughter of an operative to day, and yet, before many years shall roll away, she may be a duchess. This has actually occurred within our recollection. Woman needs no hereditary rank to entitle her to the peerage. Her sex is her nobility, and her charms her escutcheon. But if never destined to rise above the humble domestic servant, yet, even here, in her intercourse with the family, and especially with the children during the most eventful period of their history, she exerts a power which may some day be felt in the senate, and which most certainly shall extend to eternity. "None of us," however contracted our sphere, "liveth to himself." God visits the sins of one generation upon the next, and not unfrequently upon several succeeding ones. This does not mean that he arbitrarily punishes the children for the crimes of their parents, guardians, or tutors; but, that every age stamps its own impress on the one that succeeds it, and of course, if it is in the wrong, those whom it directs must be injured accordingly. When we thus reflect that, in nine cases out of ten, mankind are educated by women, how important it is that those who thus preside over our destiny should be rendered persons of the highest intellectual and moral attainments. Nor can we here allow a monopoly of knowledge to prevail, without inflicting a greater injury on the monopolists themselves than upon the intended victims of their injustice. In numerous cases the servant does more to form the character of the child than its own mother, and therefore an ignorant mother may do little harm compared with the untutored domestics, who are the chief companion of her children during the most important era of their existence. In a very great number of families the negligence of mothers would cease to be a calamity, provided the female guardians of their offspring were well informed. When the frivolities of the age occupy the whole attention of the parent, so that her chief business seems to consist in dress, lying on a sofa, sighing over a tale of romance, making morning calls long after mid-day, because she cannot leave her bed until the sun is on the meridian, preparing for evening visitors, and taking an important part in the chit-chat of the table, &c. ; when this is the case, the poor children, unless blessed with intelligent nursemaids and governesses, must be in a pitiable condition. I have often seen the offspring of such parents, when let into the drawing-room for an exhibition to the company, give awful proof that their mothers were "dead while they lived," and that their foster-mothers, the servants, had not a single qualification for the office that had been delegated to them by these unnatural parents. In such females, were the almæ matris what they ought to be, the criminality of the real parent would chiefly scourge herself; but when mothers and servants are equally uninformed and neglectful, the children are injured for time and eternity. When therefore the influence of woman is duly weighed, it will be evident that if a better education belongs to either of the sexes, that privilege is especially due to females. And further, so long as mothers are thoughtless, it will be far better to have ignorant parents

116

LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN BUNYAN.

than ignorant servants. Of all persons upon earth, those who are unfit to educate or superintend their own offspring ought to be the last to advocate popular ignorance.

LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN BUNYAN.

BY REV. W. PAYNE, CHESHAM.

No. V.-John Bunyan as a Preacher.

THE astonishment experienced by the Jews of Damascus the first time Saul of Tarsus preached Christ in the synagogue, was very like the feeling excited in the breasts of many by the announcement that John Bunyan had turned preacher. And yet the spiritual process through which he had been passing, these many months, greatly qualified him for that noble work. He was pre-eminently taught of God. The statement of Dr. Southey is highly honourable to the Baptist Denomination. "Had it not been for the encouragement he received from the Baptists, he might have lived and died a Tinker." Without stopping to confute or confirm this testimony, we will say, all honour to the intelligent christians of the Church at Bedford; their decision as to the qualifications of John Bunyan for the christian ministry, has been approved by the catholic church and ratified by Jesus Christ its Lord. His own simple unadorned account of the matter, strikingly illustrates both his genuine modesty and earnest piety. "After that I had been five or six years awakened, and helped myself to see both the want and worth of Jesus, and also enabled to venture upon him, (these good people seem to have appreciated Paul's words, 'not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil'); some of the most able of the saints, the most able for judgment and holiness as they thought, perceived that God had counted me worthy to understand something of His will, and His holy and blessed word; and had given me utterance in some measure to explain what I saw to others for their edification. Therefore they desired me, and that with much earnestness, to speak a word of exhortation to them."

66

His first attempts at preaching were in private. Most likely some experienced Christian would then go with him to some village station, that it might be known whether he was apt to teach. Then, after solemn prayer and fasting, he was more particularly "called forth." Who does not admire the prudence, sagacity, piety, of these noble Puritans! He could at any rate say, we speak that we do know. I have been as one sent to them from the dead. I went myself in chains, to preach to them in chains, and carried fire in my conscience that I persuaded them to beware of, but neither guilt nor hell could take me from my work." You see his work was not his recreation, but his life. He could not but speak the things which he had felt; this is the secret of an earnest ministry, it deserves and demands our whole soul. He was a true successor of the apostles. His spirit was truly Pauline. Did that great apostle say, "I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh?" "I did often say" (says John Bunyan,) "in my heart before the Lord, that if to be hanged up before their eyes, would be a means to awaken and confirm them in the truth, I should gladly be content to be so hanged.' Did the apostle's bitterest sorrow arise from the defection of his converts from the faith? "I can

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