PUBLISHED BY THE MASS. TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. Address editorial communications to EDITOR of MASS. TEACHER, Boston; letters relating to advertising, to JOHN P. PAYSON, Chelsea; those relating to subscrine, to Massachusetts Teacher, Boston; to publishing, to D. W. By JOHN D. PHILBRICK, Superintendent of the Public Schools of Boston. AMERICAN UNION SPEAKER. Containing Standard and Recent Selections in Prose and Poetry for Recitations and Declamations in Schools. Academies and Colleges. With Introductory Remarks on Elocution, and Explanatory Notes. Crown octavo, half morocco, 618 pages. Retail price, $2.25. PRIMARY UNION SPEAKER. Containing original and selected pieces for Declamation and Recitations in Primary and Intermediate Schools. With illustrations. Retail price, 65 cents. Philbrick's Speakers are believed to excel in the following particulars :— the 1. The judicious selections of pieces from standard authors, and the most eloquent and brilliant of living orators and writers, presenting the gems of the old and the best of the new, humorous and grave, classic and popular. 2. The biographical and description notes necessary to a proper appreciation of the circumstances under which the pieces were spoken or written, and the valuable practical hints and suggestions to Teachers and Students under the head of Introductory Remarks on Elocution." 3. The superior style in which the books are printed and bound, and their high literary character, which also adapt them especially for the library. From Prof. A. MELVILLE BELL, F. E. I. S. Lecturer on Elocution in University College, London, England. I beg to thank you for making me acquainted with Mr. Philbrick's American Union Speaker. The selections are admirably fitted for exercises in Declamation, and the numerous examples of na tional oratory are calculated to inspire a spirit of emulative eloquence. The work appears to me excellent both in plan and execution. From FRANCIS GARDNER, Head Master of Public Latin School, Boston. It gives me pleasure to bear testimony to the excellence of Philbrick's American Union Speaker. It has been in use at the Latin School ever since it was published, and I consider it unques tionably the best book of the kind in use. From C. M. CUMSTON, Head Master of English High School, Boston. I think Philbrick's American Union Speaker an excellent book. It is the favorite Speaker in our School. From E. HUNT, Head Master of Girls' High and Normal School, Boston. Please accept my thanks for a copy of Philbrick's American Union Speaker. Who can esti mate the value of so happy a selection of gems of thought and eloquence in forming and cultivat ing the pupil's taste for the best literature of the language? As my pupils all speak or recite prose and poetry, it is just the book for them. From HON. NEWTON BATEMAN, Supt. of Public Instruction, State of Illinois. I like Philbrick's American Union Speaker for the uniform excellence of its selections, in respect both to their intellectual and moral tone, and the pure taste which they are fitted to inspire and cultivate. The whole effect of the book is to enrich the mind and improve the heart of the student, which unfortunately cannot be said of some other books of its class. From LEWIS B. MUNROE, Director of Vocal and Physical Culture in the Public Schools of Boston. A work of unqualified excellence. Just the book needed by every student of declamation. From A. P. STONE, Principal of High School, Portland, Me. In every feature the work seems to be of the highest excellence. From MOSES T. BROWN, Professor of Elocution, Tufts College. Philbrick's Primary Union Speaker is admirable in its plans and in its selections. Single copies of Philbrick's Speakers sent for examination on receipt of half the above prices. Descriptive catalogue of educational publications sent on application to the Publishers. THOMPSON, BIGELOW & BROWN, 25 and 29 Cornhill, Boston. GUYOT'S WALL MAPS, Physical, Political and Outline Combined. INCOMPARABLY SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING PUBLISHED.-Agassiz. On these Maps, the green color indicates low lands; the brown, table lands; and the white, high plateaus; while the position, direction, height and steepness of mountains, are all shown by the peculiarities of the mountain shades. The Political Divisions are shown by bright red lines; the names of all prominent features are distinctly printed, but in so light type that they can be read at a short distance only; thus the map is fitted for all the purposes of an outline map. Hence, these maps are, at the same time, really Physical, Political, and Outline, or, in other words, we have three maps in one. TEN MAPS put up in neat portfolio, same size as Common School Series,. Key to Guyot's Wall Maps sent free with each set. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! Schools using Guyot's Geographies, or about introducing them, will be supplied with the above maps at the following discounts:- On the Large and Intermediate Series, 10 per cent; on the Common School and Primary Series, 25 per cent. Address, GILMAN H. TUCKER, Corresponding Agent, At THOMPSON, BIGELOW & BROWN'S, 25 & 29 CORNHILL, BOSTON. EDITOR'S DEPARTMENT. — A HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO CONTRIBUTORS, SUBSCRIBERS, 24; INDUSTRIAL OR MECHANICAL DRAWING, 25; TEACHERS' MEETINGS FOR DISCUSSIONS, 29; INTELLIGENCE, 29; WOMEN IN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, 31; OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND BY TOPICS, 32. BOOK NOTICES.-FRENCH, GERMAN AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY, 33; BOOKS AND READING, 34; PHYSIOLOGY, 34; PRACTISCHES LEHRBRUCH DER ENGLIS- CHEN SPRACHE, 34; NATURE'S ARISTOCRACY, 34; MIRIAN, 35; THE AMER- ICAN UNION SPEAKER, 35; A PRIMER OF ALGEBRA, 35; MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN, 35; WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, THE BOTTOм of THE SEA, 36; MY APINGI KINGDOM, 36; EVER NEAR AND NEVER OLd, 36; LOST IN THE FOG, 36; PLane and PlaNK, 36; ALMANACS, 37; MISCELLA- - OTHER MAGAZINES. — Subscribers who pay in advance for the Massachusetts Teacher may order, through this Office, the following Magazines, at the prices indicated. THE NATION. E. L. GODKIN, Publisher, New York. A Weekly Journal. $5.00 per an- THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, devoted to Literature, Science, Art, and Politics. $4.00 per year. Our Subscribers, $8.00. OLD AND NEW, edited by Rev. E. E. HALE, is published monthly. $4.00 per year. OUR YOUNG FOLKS: a Monthly, containing something in every juvenile department, $2.00 per year. Our Subscribers, $1.50. STUDENT AND SCHOOLMATE: & Monthly, devoted to pleasing Boys and Girls. $1.50 per year. Our Subscribers, $1.00. OUR BOYS AND GIRLS: a popular Weekly Magazine, edited by Oliver Optic. $2.50 per THE AMERICAN NATURALIST: the admirable Monthly of the Essex Institution, Salem. Adapted both to scientific and ordinary readers: it is neither below the one nor above the other. $4.00 per year. Our Subscribers, $3.00. NURSERY, $1.50 a year. Our subscribers, $1.00. PUTNAM'S MAGAZINE (price $4.00) and Teacher, for $4.50. It is interesting to observe what queer contradictory expressions arise in different languages from a disregard of the original meaning of words. A number of examples are given on page 222 of Trench's "English Past and Present." Here are a few more. In the third book of the Iliad Homer describes the combat between Paris and Menelaus, which was preceded by shaking the lots in a xʊvéŋ xaλxpeï, that is, in a copper dog-skin. If the reading coruscant, in a passage of Lucretius, is correct, the verb is derived from cornu, a horn, and means to "push or thrust a horn"; but we should hardly be justified in rendering Virgil's apes pennis coruscant, G. IV. 73, by "bees.push their horns with their wings." In the account of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, in Mark's Gospel, vi. 42, it is said that the multitude all ate and xoprάondav, that is, were filled with hay. In Virgil, Æn. xii. 87, I find albo orichalco, which is literally white yellow copper. Xenophon, in the seventh book of the Anabasis, uses the expression ταχὺ ἐξέρπει. Now ταχὺ means ‘rapidly, and ἐξέρπει = to crawl out'; so that the expression is pretty nearly equivalent to "he rapidly makes a slow exit." Crabb Robinson, in his Reminiscences, says Schelling had the countenance of a white negro. Arnold (Hist. of Rome, vol. 1, p. 25) describes the battle of the Horatii and Curiatii, "three twin" (trigemini) brothers. It is not often that the component parts of a compound word are exactly antithetical in meaning, and I think it would be hard to match the German |