on his relations, or on society, and he dies a premature death. He forms a multitude of ties, and brings disgrace on his connections. He deprives them of the assistance he owes. He has some violent or seductive passion. His money affords him the means for its gratification; his indulgence inflames his evil propensities; harpies hang upon him, who feed his passions, help him to squander, and ultimately laugh at his misfortunes. True, he circulates money, but that so rapidly, that he soon has none to spend, and in fact becomes a burden on others. Some people suppose that it is quite enough if money be circulated, without a rigid inquiry how it is circulated. This argument is advanced in favour of an aristocracy of birth; but the manner or the channels of expenditure are no trifling matter in estimating the value of this expenditure to society. It is not in general in luxuries, a legitimate method of spending money in the case of the wealthy, that the spendthrift wastes his gold. What are the whole host of betting or gambling houses, stews, horse races, &c., which are a curse to the community, upheld by but simply by the spendthrift? To him we owe, to a large extent, the encouragement given to theatres, and casinos, and the gin palace, in the case of the spendthrift who has much command of money, but especially as to the labouring man who squanders the greater part of his earnings on drink. The mischief which the spendthrift does may be estimated by the good which would be done if the instrumentality now referred to, to which the spendthrift largely contributes, were abolished. Say not that the spendthrift does no direct injury to others in the very act of spending his gold. His money has a powerful influence over the facile mind of woman, and he frequently leads her astray. In some cases, when he loses his fortune, he becomes a sharper himself, which is even worse than if he sunk, a wreck in consequence of vice. If it be replied, that the instances mentioned are not in fair argument, as they refer to parties who are moved by some desire or passion independent of that of squandering money, we answer that it is obvious enough, that while the miser may come to hoard money for its own sake, the spendthrift has not simply a desire to waste money for the sake of squandering, but to gain some ulterior end; and that we must look on the matter in this light-the only one possible.

It appears, from the considerations now advanced, that the miser is his own worst enemy-that the spendthrift more obviously and more fatally injures both himself and society. In opposition, it may be contended, that the money which the miser leaves may do as much injury, by being improperly spent, as that of the spendthrift; but this is only a contingent evil, which may not happen. At any rate, the miser's successors are responsible agents; they are not led into evil by any direct means used by the miser; and this objection to the miser's case seems much

more than balanced by the wretchedness and crime which the direct acts of the spendthrift cause to himself and society. It is true the miser's meanness awakens contempt; but the selfish expenditure of the spendthrift, so opposite to true generosity, excites indignation; and whether or not these feelings point respectively to greater or less shades of guilt, the question under discussion has reference solely to the injurious effects upon society of the spendthrift or the miser. These views have been presented, though the writer is not very confident on the question, either the one way or the other, in the hope of assisting in the elucidation of the truth. He trusts it will not be understood that, in taking the position he does, he wishes to inculcate that if a man inclines either to reckless extravagance or to become a miser, he approves of his going in the one direction any more than in the other, or in preference to the other. Moral questions cannot be properly treated with such an object. It is hoped, however, that the discussion may tend, by exhibiting the distinctive evils which the spendthrift and the miser each entail, to induce increased vigilance against those seductive temptations to which these characters have yielded

"Thou tread'st upon enchanted ground,
Perils and snares beset thee round;
Beware of all; guard every part,

But most the traitor in thine heart."

T.U.

DEATH.-Death is a part of life. It is nothing more than the negation of life. If life, therefore, be no general good, death is no general evil. Who shall decide it? Not women and children, but wise men. Thales, the chief of the sages, held life and death as things indifferent. Socrates, the greatest of all philosophers, speaks of death as a deliverance, and so does Cicero; and Solomon, who had tasted all the sweets of life, condemns the whole as vanity and vexation.-Fielding.

GAMING.-It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game; but it is impossible that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.-. -Lavater.

JUDGMENTS.-When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials; when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to impute them to the settled course of things.-Shenstone.

POVERTY is, except where there is an actual want of food and raiment, a thing much more imaginary than real. The shame of poverty-the shame of being thought poor-it is a great and fatal weakness, though arising, in this country, from the fashion of the times themselves.-Cobbett.

Self-Educator.

LESSONS ON FRENCH.

BY W. J. CHAMPION, A.B.

PART II THE INFLEXIONS.

(Continued from page 230.)

3. THE ADJECTIVE.

Adjectives are inflected to agree with the substantives to which they belong in gender and number; so, un bon livre, a good book; une bonne plume, a good pen; de bons livres, some good books; de bonnes plumes, some good pens.

THE GENDER OF ADJECTIVES.

The feminine gender of adjectives is in most cases formed from the masculine by adding e mute; as un joli oiseau, a pretty bird; une jolie bague, a pretty ring (for the finger); un grand homme, a great man; une grande femme, a great woman.

Adjectives ending in e mute are alike in both genders; as un homme aveugle, or un aveugle, a blind man; une femme aveugle, or une aveugle, a blind woman.

Those that end in eur change r into se; as un maître grondeur, a grumbling master; une humeur grondeuse, a grumbling humour.

Exceptions. Intérieur, interior; extérieur, exterior; inférieur, inferior, and supérieur, superior; together with meilleur, better; majeur, superior; mineur, less, add e for the feminine; intérieure, &c.

Those that end in x change x into se; as un sentiment noble et courageux, a noble and courageous feeling; une âme courageuse, a brave spirit. Doux, sweet; faux, false; préfix, determined, appointed; and roux, red, make douce, fausse, préfixe, and rousse.

F becomes v in the feminine; as un habit neuf, a new coat; unc habitude neuve, a fresh habit. So veuf, a widower, and veuve, a widow.

Adjectives whose masculine ends in el, eil, en, et, and on, form their feminine by doubling the final consonant before e mute: so, un air naturel, a natural manner; une vie naturelle, a natural way of living; un cas pareil, a similar instance; une occasion pareille, a similar opportunity: so, chrétien, christian, makes chrétienne; muet, dumb, muette; bon, good, bonne. Complet, complete; replet, replete; concret, concrete; discret, discreet; secret, secret; inquiet, restless; and adjectives in er, as fier, haughty, form their feminine by adding e mute, and take a grave accent on the penultimate syllable, as complète, fière. The following adjectives, bas, low; épais, thick; exprès, plain; gras, fat; gros, big; las, tired; and the substantive profes, a monk; together with bellot, pretty; sot, foolish; vieillot, stale; gentil, pretty; nul, no, none; and the substantive paysan, a peasant, double the final consonant before the e mute; as un jour gras, a day on which meat may be eaten; dormir la grasse matinée, to sleep late in the morning.

Beau, fine; nouveau, new;, v; fou, mad; mou, soft; vieux, old, become bel, nouvel, fol, mol, vieil, when followed by a word beginning with a silent h or with a Vowel: so, un beau temps, fine weather; le bel âge n'est qu'une fleur, youth is but a flower. These five adjectives form their feminine from this less common termination, belle, nouvelle, folle, molle, vieille. In the same manner, jumeau, a twin, makes the feminine jumelle.

The plural of adjectives is formed from their singular, according to the rules already given for substantives.

Adjectives in al form their plural in aux (according to the rule) if they are frequently used in the masculine plural; as, brutal, grammatical, immoral, original, &c. But when in the plural they are used in the feminine gender more commonly than in the masculine, the masculine plural is formed by adding s to the singular: such are austral, boréal, doctoral, ducal, crucial, paroissial, parochial, &c. With such a rule it is easy to imagine that great uncertainty must prevail in reference to many of these words.

Tout, every, loses the final t in the masculine plural; as tous les hommes sont mortels, all men are mortal.

In the plural of adjectives ending in nt, the t should be preserved: des hommes savants et prudents, some wise and learned men; not savans, prudens.

THE COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES.

There are usually reckoned three degrees of comparison, the POSITIVE, the COMPARATIVE, and the SUPERLATIVE.

The POSITIVE is the adjective in its simple form; as un homme prudent, a discreet man; les femmes savantes, learned women.

The COMPARATIVE expresses-1, equality; 2, superiority; 3, inferiority. 1. The comparison of Equality is denoted by placing aussi before, or autant after, the adjective, and que before the substantive, adjective, or pronoun, which stands second in the comparison; as il est aussi éloquent que savant, he is as eloquent as learned; Hannibal était aussi habile que brave, et admiré autant qu'estimé, Hannibal was as skilful as (he was) brave, and as much admired as esteemed.

When, in a negation of equality, the subject does not immediately precede the adjective, si is used instead of aussi; as vous n'êtes pas si grand que lui, you are not so tall as he; la vue de l'orfraie n'est pas si nette que celle de l'aigle, the sight of the osprey is not so clear as that of the eagle; but l'orfraie n'a pas la vue AUSSI nette que l'aigle, the osprey has not the sight so clear as the eagle (which is quite as good French, though inferior English).

2. The comparison of Superiority is formed by prefixing the adverb plus, and using que, where in English we should use than; as il est plus grand que

vous, he is taller than you; le bien est plus ancien dans le monde que le mal, literally, good is more ancient in the world than evil.

There are three irregular forms which are the only true comparatives in French, viz., meilleur, better; moindre, less; pire, worse.

3. The comparison of Inferiority is formed in a similar manner, only using the adverb moins, less, instead of plus; as Alexandre était moins coupable que son frère, Alexander was less culpable than his brother.

The SUPERLATIVE degree, strictly speaking, does not exist in French. But to express the highest degree of any quality, the comparative form is used with the definite article. So, "the wisest man' "is in French "the more wise man," l'homme le plus sage. Thus, too, le plus grand homme de son temps, the greatest man of his time.

In French the meaning of an adjective often depends on its position before or after the substantive to which it belongs. The place of the adjective is after the substantive; but when it has any other than a simple literal meaning it is placed before it. This general rule is subject to some few exceptions, of which the following are the principal; the examples will serve as an exercise to be translated by the student.

La plupart des jeunes gens. Les plus grosses fèves du meilleur café. Les moindres defauts des plus grands écrivains. Les belles plumes des petits oiseaux. Les beaux palais des vieux rois.

The numeral adjectives require no special notice, as they are not subject to any inflexions.

Before we proceed to the other inflexions, it may be worth while to give a few hints on the close connexion of many words in English with those in French. This connexion arises from their being derived from a common source; the Latin, for the most part, furnishes both. To those of our readers who understand Latin well these hints will be of great value.

Verbs in French are mostly derived from the present infinitive,-in English from the supine; thus, prohiber comes from prohibere; prohibit from prohibitum; accélérer from accelerare; accelerate from acceleratum.

Verbs which are derived from the Latin through the French are derived from the French present infinitive: so, abuse from abuser, excuse from excuser, &c.

Similar observations apply to adjectives and substantives. They suggest the following rules for finding the words which correspond in the two languages. 1. Most English verbs ending in ise, use, ute, become French by adding r ; as baptise, baptiser; refuse, refuser; refute, réfuter.

2. Most English verbs ending in ate, fy, or ish, become French by changing ate into er; fy into fier; ish into ir; as calculate, calculer; ratify, ratifier; punish, punir.

3. Adjectives and substantives ending in ary, ory, cy, ty, our, ous, or, and ive, change these terminations respectively into aire, oire, ce, té, eur, eux, eur, and if as primary, primaire; glory, gloire; clemency, clémence; verity, vérité; favour, faveur ; fibrous, fibreux; professor, professeur; adjective, adjectif. To these may be added many substantives that change y into ie; as allegory, allégorie; autopsy, autopsie; melancholy, melancolie. The former is more frequently the case with nouns derived from the Latin; the latter with those derived from the Greek.

4. Most substantives in ce, de, ge, ne, ion, and ure; and most adjectives in ble, al, an, and nt, are the same in both languages: as vice, prélude, age, famine, collation, opinion, stature; noble, animal, capital, artisan, prudent, resultant.