a word; for, as nouns and ad-little words resemble joints in jectives are often made from a sentence. verbs, they were considered the principal words of a language. ADVERB-if you notice the derivation of "Adjective," you may at once see how adverb is formed. ARTICLE is derived from Articulus, a little joint, as these PREPOSITION is derived from pre, before, and positus, placed. CONJUNCTION is made from con, together, and junctus, joined. INTERJECTION is derived from inter, between, and jactus, thrown. THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS. THERE is a reaper whose name is Death, He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, "Shall I have naught that is fair?" saith he; He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, It was for the Lord of Paradise He bound them in his sheaves. "My Lord has need of these flowrets gay," Where he was once a child. "They shall all bloom in fields of light, And saints, upon their garments white, And the mother gave, in tears and pain, She knew she should find them all again Oh, not in cruelty, not in wrath, The Reaper came that day; 'Twas an angel visited the green earth, LONGFELLOW. THE FOREIGN TRAVELLER. THE TURKS—RELIGION-HABITS-OPIUM-EATING, ETC. "MY DEAR CHILDREN,"Hear about the Turks! "THE TURKS,' said my companion, ‘are a fine-looking race of people. They are descended from tribes which still inhabit the shores of the Caspian Sea. Perhaps their elegance of person is in consequence of the mixture of blood in their constitutions; for, just as the English are descended from the Ancient Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, so you have Arab, Grecian, and Persian blood in the veins of the Turk. And thus a Turk is the handsomest of human beings; he has a lofty forehead, dark eyes, and finely cut fea tures.' "So much for their appearance!' I said. 'But never mind their persons: what are their characters?' 666 "They are very indolent, certainly; but if you oppress the Turks, or rob them, then they become infuriated. In general, they have little care or pity for the infidels, as they call those who are not Mahommedans; and yet they are often kind and generous to strangers. Their disposition is a strange compound of fierceness and generosity: they will dethrone and strangle their sultans without remorse, yet they will build hospitals, and endow them, and established other charities. "The character of the Turks, however, is much influenced by their religion. Tell a Turk that his city is very dirty, he will answer you "God wills it." I once heard of some Turks who were sitting near a large mass of gunpowder, and were smoking: they were reminded that if only a spark from one of their pipes fell among the gunpowder, they would all be blown to atoms; but they would not remove; their only answer was, "That if God willed them to be burned, they would be; if not, they would be saved." Thus they take little care of themselves or their doings. The Turk believes that all that has, or ever will happen, even the most minute thing, has been decided by fate, or by the will of God, and (sometimes) he acts accordingly. We call such a doctrine "fatalism." are "The Mahommedans divided into two great sects, viz., the followers of Ali, and the followers of Omar. The Persians alone are of the sect of Ali; and the Turks and Arabs are the followers of Omar. These sects hate and despise each other. The Turks and Arabs call the followers of Ali heretics, while the Persians in their turn call the sect of Omar the followers of the devil; Ali they say is the lawful successor of the Prophet, and they call him "the Vicar of God." "The sect of Omar believe their sultan to be at the head of the Mussulman religion; he is looked upon as the Prophet's successor. You know, no doubt, what is the principal article of their faith-"There is one God, and Mahommed is his prophet." "Instead of ten commandments as the Jews had, the Mahommedans have five : "1. To pray five times a day. "2. To observe the fast of the month of Ramazan. "3. To give alms and do other deeds of charity. "4. To perform a pilgrimage to MECCA (the Prophet's birthplace), once in the lifetime. 5. To keep the body externally pure. "Besides these, there are minor commandments. Every Mussulman is to fast on Friday most rigorously (this day is sacred because it is that on which Mahomet saved himself from his persecutors by flight) -to practise circumcision-to abstain from wine and fermented drinks-to abstain from pork, and the flesh of animals that have died from suffocation. The Turks attend to all these commands except that which relates to wine; and unfortunately their consciences allow them to break this law. "The fast of Ramadhan (or Ramazan) is also sadly broken -or, at least, it is kept in a very bad way. It is enjoined in the Koran that once every year, during a whole month, the Mahommedan shall abstain perfectly from all meat and drink, from the hour of sunrise till sunset-he must not even let cold water touch his lips. After loitering away his time during the whole day, he makes up for want of food and exercise at night. As soon as the sun has set, he abandons himself to gaiety and every kind of indulgence; the wealthy hold parties of pleasure all night, and are often very intemperate - until the morning comes; then they are obliged to be very sober again. The lower ranks of people are just as bad.' "Yes,' I said, 'I am aware of that.' Then I told the countess of the night-scenes I witnessed while stopping at Tangiers, which you may remember I described to you. "At the end of the season of Ramadhan,' said the countess, there is a time of the greatest jollity; and I often wonder how the Turks get their living, with so much gaiety and idleness. To me they scarcely seem to work, even at other times; they spend their hours in sauntering from café to café, and in playing at chess and draughts. Or perhaps the Turk will sit cross-legged on a carpet under the shadow of some tree; there he will spend, perhaps, the whole day, sipping coffee and smoking, or listening to a favorite tune. Ask him why he does not take exercise, and he will tell you that he accounts it ridiculous to walk!' 6 "I suppose,' I said, 'that the Turk drinks coffee to stimulate him, because he is not allowed to have strong drink?' 'Yes,' was the reply; and he not only takes coffee, but when he wants a strong excitement, he indulges in opium, a vegetable substance which excites the mind to the most delight ing to an apothecary's shop, I pro- ful imaginations. Like other stimulants, however, it has dreadful effects; it sometimes brings on fits of the most frantic rage. This opium may often be procured at the coffee-houses; and this reminds me of a clergy-diately to feel extremely particular man who once ventured to take a about the stomach, and soon in a dose of opium, to try its effects. retching agony parted with all his "In one of his letters, he opium. My portion stuck fast; says:and I shortly lapsed into a disturbed slumber, in which it appeared to me that I retained my consciousness entire, while visions passed before me which no language can convey, and no words represent. At one time I was soaring on the pinions of an angel, among the splendours of the highest heavens, beholding at a glance the beauty of their unveiled mysteries, and listening to harps and choral symphonies, over which, time, sorrow, and death have no power; and then my presumption was checked, my cleaving wings were melted away, and I fell down, till caught in the bosom of a thunder-cloud. From this I was again hurled upon the plunging verge of a cataract, that carried me down, frantic with horror, into the lowest depth of its howling gulf. "Our guide took us to a row of coffee-rooms, the favourite resort of the Teriakis, or opium-eaters. The juice of the poppy (opium) is, I think, as harmless as any other source of excitement; and then it has this strong recommendation, it never makes a man foolish; it never casts a man into a ditch, or under a table; it never deprives him of his wits or his legs. It makes him visionary, but his visions create no noise, no riots; he deals no blows, blackens no one's eyes, and frightens no one's peace. But here my friend was mistaken: it sometimes causes fury. "It was curious to watch the immediate effects on those who came to these coffee-shops to procure their daily allowance. The change which spread through the countenance and limbs, was like the restoration of the dying to the happiness of life. You could hardly persuade yourself that the man who now moved before you with a light tread, and an eye kindling with rapture, was the same who had just approached you with a faltering, feeble step, scarcely able to sustain himself upon his cane. Before, every feature seemed settled in despair, so that hope seemed like a mockery. "My imagination was so kindled by the sight of these men, and the perusal of a little book called the Opium-eater,' that I resolved to try its pleasing effects. So, send "Thence again I emerged. And then, with the swiftness of a spirit, I seemed to float around just between the circle of the blue heaven and the sea, discerning upon the ocean the innumerable ships skimming the wave with the lightness of the swallow, while without the circle I beheld, far down in the twilight and gloom of an immeasurable gulf, the wrecks of worn-out worlds. "Still I floated on upon the frightful verge of the circle, till coming around near the north pole I saw its steadfast star fixed in death. Other planets were bending over it; and when they had sung its funeral hymn, they low ered it into a grave so dark, so fathomless and still, that all the convulsions of nature could never disturb its sleep. Then I thought how the dismayed mariner would now roll his eyes in vain to find his undeviating star, when an iceberg with its mountain mass of frozen torrents came rolling on, and catching me in one of its dripping shelves, bore me through seas lashed by the hurricane, convulsed with the war of the whale and sword-fish, and where the serpent, struck by lightning, lay troughed between two waves like a huge pine prostrate among the hills. 66 Being benumbed by the stiffening ice, I fell from my tumbling iceberg, and descending through the sea, was carried by a wave quite within a little grotto, reared of coral and lined with pearls, where a mermaid was gently kindling a fire. Beneath the reviving rays I soon felt each frozen vein and limb slowly tingling back to life; when this daughter of the deep, raising her harp, struck one of those soft strains whose liquid flow melts into the heart like fragrant dew into the bosom of the folding rose. "But scarce had the last note of this sweet minstrel died away, when a call, loud as the summoning trump of the archangel, sent its rending thunder through the hollow caverns of the astonished ocean, starting even death itself from his sleep. The sheeted dead went up from their watery graves to stand on the sea, while the earth, from precipice to plain, from shore to mountain's brow, was covered with the shrouded myriads that had left their couches of clay. "The sun, with a changed, despairing aspect, disappeared, leaving a huge darkened chasm in the heaven. The moon spun round and round, and slowly receded from view, leaving another fear ful blank in the blue vault. The planets fell from their places, and were quenched as they sunk into the lifeless void beneath. Thick palpable darkness filled all space, save where the forked lightning, arrested in its course, still preserved its terrific form and brightness, and save the lingering light of some loftier star that contended with its doom. The powers of nature were still and motionless; the mariner heard his sails fall against the idle mast; the breaker ceased to lift its voice over the fatal reef; while the sea-bird, unable again to reach the wave, rested upon his immovable pinions; the curling wave lay half-broken on the shore; the torrent ceased to plunge from its steep; the warhorse kneeled down and died; the monarch in his capital, discrowned, stood pale and speechless; the peasant in the field called aloud on his forgotten God; while the imploring shrieks of nations went up like the last wail of a ruined world." "Such was a part of my friend's present wonderful vision, which, after taking the opium, lasted two days and two nights. When he awoke from his strange dream, he was in a state of most dreadful exhaustion; he could neither stand nor sit, nor lie, nor keep in one position for a few seconds only; he suffered from thirst, fainting, and delirious weakness. "But we are near home,' added the countess. 'I will finish my account of the Turks after dinner.' I can't write any more; I am "Therefore, dear children, going to dinner. So please excuse me. "Your affectionate friend, |