factors and traders who distinguished themselves by their explorations in the region long known to geographers as Prince Rupert's Land. Amid the vicissitudes of nations this chartered company held the territory for two hundred years, until it passed to the British crown and subsequently to the Canadian Dominion. Till the close of that period colonization knocked in vain at every gateway of the region. For a hundred years the Hudson Bay Company did little to open the country, contenting itself with establishing a few trading-posts on James Bay, to which the Indians of the Athabasca and Saskatchewan region resorted for trade. Meanwhile the great plains of the Canadian Northwest had been explored by way of Ottawa and Lake Superior, first by the adventurous French, and, after the conquest of Quebec, by the equally adventurous Scotch of Montreal and Quebec.

The result of this probing of the Northern continent by the waterways of the St. Lawrence system was the speedy diversion of the peltry trade from the routes it had been wont to follow, and the awakening of the Hudson Bay Company to the active rivalry of Montreal. In 1784, the latter organized themselves into a trading corporation, known as the North-West Company, the history of which has been given by M. Masson. The story told in his pages comprises the dramatic incidents in the career of the company, from its organization (in 1784) to its amalgamation with the Hudson Bays in 1821. It is a story of almost continuous strife, peril and bloodshed. The ill-starred relations of Lord Selkirk and his Red River colony with the Hudson Bays, and the long and bitter contest between the settlers and the wintering partners and employees of the North-West Company, are the chief incidents of the story. In narrating them, the author shows a manifest animus against the Hudson Bay Company and the philanthropic nobleman who sought to found a colony on the Red River, now the Canadian province of Manitoba.

So partisan is M. Masson in dealing with this portion of his work that the reader will have to seek elsewhere for the materials of a soberer judgment. The chapters dealing with exploration in the region we take to be more trustworthy, and they are certainly very entertaining. Pleasant also is the account given us of the magnates of the Montreal Company, and of the lordly hospitality in which they indulged at the annual gatherings of the partners at Fort William. Very welcome, to the wintering partners at least, must have been those times of cheer, for desolate indeed was the life of the early furtraders in posts remote not only from civilization but from contact with their kind. Inter

esting matter will be found in the latter half of the book, which deals with Alexander Mackenzie's expeditions to the Arctic and the Pacific oceans, with Simon Fraser's voyage from the Rocky Mountains to the coast, with an exploratory tour with Captain (afterwards Sir John) Franklin, and with various trading ventures among the Missouri Indians. The author has derived the materials for these interesting narratives from the hitherto unpublished journals of servants of the fur companies. The work, as a whole, is a valuable addition to the literature of the era of the fur trade, especially in the region long known as New France.

An inspiring, optimistic volume reaches us, under the title of "A Man's Value to Society," from the press of Fleming H. Revell Co., New York and Chicago. Its author is Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, a popular clergyman of Chicago, who is well fitted to address young men on such studies as self-culture and character, since he is not only a man of wide reading and large experience, but is alive in thought and feeling, and knows thoroughly how to reach and impress the minds of his readers. His work is full of wise thought and counsel, brightly presented, and with no exaggeration or suspicion of cant. Here are some of his subjects: The Revelators of Character, Aspirations and Ideals, The Physical Basis of Character, The Mind and the Duty of Right Thinking, The Science of Living with Men, The Uses of Books and Reading, Making the Most of One's Self.

As an example of the author's style we extract the following on "the misfits of life," from the chapter on The Elements of Worth in the Individual. The successful man grasps the handle of his being. He moves in the line of least resistance. That one accomplishes most, whose heart sings while his hand works. Like animals, men have varied uses. The lark sings, the ox bears burdens, the horse is for strength and speed. But men who are wise towards beasts are often foolish towards themselves. . . The school is to help the boy unpack what intellectual tools he has; education does not change, but puts temper into these tools. No man can alter his temperament, though, trying to, he can break his heart. How pathetic the wrecks of men who have chosen the wrong occupation. The driver bathes the raw shoulder of a horse whose collar does not fit; but when men make their misfits, and the heart is sore, society does not soothe, but with whips it scourges the man to his fruitless task. John Stuart Mill placed the industrial mismatings among the heavier losses of society." G. M. A.

ON ENGLISH COMPOSITION

OR some years our educational systems have happily been shaped in accordance with the conviction that our mother tongue ought to have the first claim upon the teacher in the training of youth. Unfortunately, in the teaching of our mother tongue, educational effort has, in a great measure, been dissipated in grammatical analysis and other purely mechanical details, while the step beyond, facility in the writing of good English, has been little taught or acquired. Years have been spent by the pupil in putting up the scaffolding, but the building itself has rarely been got under way. We are far, of course, from implying that any fair measure of success in the writing of English can, as a rule, be attained without much drill in syntax. Yet it is well known that many journalists and literary men acquire even great skill in this art who are destitute of any technical knowledge of the language. In their case a correct ear, familiarity with good literary models, and contact with people who habitually speak good English, supply the place of text-books, and even of unimpeachable school drill in grammar. It may be said, indeed, that it has been their good fortune to be spared the dulling effects of much grammatical study; and that relief from this has given them the ready power of writing clearly their own thoughts and of quickly apprehending the thoughts of others.

However this may be, there can be no question that the ability to write clear and correct English is in these days the educational need of our youth, with such a knowledge of the language as will discipline the mind rather than burden the memory. With the writing of good English will come the power of appreciating its noble literature, and of stimulating faculties that too often lie dormant or run to waste.

How the writing of English can best be acquired is a question not easily answered. Text-books and intelligent training will do something; but practice and the study of good models, will, admittedly, do more. The first step (we are here specially addressing the teacher) is to train the pupil to think. If at first,

which is likely to be the case, the pupil cannot use his reflective powers so as to provide himself with material for a theme in Composition, he may, with advantage, be referred to some pregnant passage occurring in the works of a good writer. He should be asked to gather the substance of the writer's argument in the passage, and to translate it into his own words. The paraphrase he may then commit to paper. Varied practice of this sort, with the corrections and counsel of a good teacher, will do more to impart facility in writing than any number of rules, or a lengthy course of grammatical exposition, however good. In English Composition, as in other branches of education, much more may be attained by oral than by text-book teaching. There are a few hints, however, that may be useful to the pupil, which we here venture to set forth, with the remark that, in this as in other studies, little can be done without the pupil's exercise of his own mental powers, or without taste in the selection and assiduity, as we have said, in the reading of good literary models.

Before beginning a practical course of English Composition, the teacher will do well to impress upon the pupil's mind the following requisites to success in the writing of English, mastery of which, in his exercises and practice, the learner should endeavor to gain: (1) Familiarity with the subject to be written about; (2) Some notion of method in the arrangement of topics, and natural sequence of ideas in treating of them; (3) A fair English vocabulary (the simpler the better); (4) An accurate knowledge of the meanings of words and phrases; (5) Some degree of taste and sense of propriety in the language used; (6) Such an acquaintance with the rules of grammar as will keep one from violating syntax; and (7) “A ready perception of the beauties of language and of those things that tend to make it most effective for its purpose."

With these general ideas impressed upon the mind of the pupil, and with preliminary practice in sentence-building, including exercises in variations of its structure, phraseology, and sequence,

he may go on to the composition of the paragraph, and to the analysis of its properties-unity, consecutiveness, and variety. From these he may proceed to exercises on theme-writing, and to lessons on the qualities of style, particularly in its essentials of perspicuity and strength. In the exercises on the analysis of style, the utmost care should be taken to make criticism on the mere mechanism of the language subordinate to the all-important consideration of the thought and aim of the writer, which form the essence of every literary work. While a student of literature, it should not be forgotten that the pupil is also a student of the world; that he is being prepared to enter upon a life of thought and action for himself; and that the pedantry which makes so much of school work in the grammatical construction of the language is a poor substitute, as a means of training, for those impressive lessons, both of principle and sentiment, which happily abound in English literature, and are its most distinguished characteristic. Nor should it be forgotten that over-attention to the minutiae of criticism prevents the pupil from forming just or adequate conceptions of an author's work, and, in the case of a masterpiece of literature, limits his vision of its large and general aspects.

In proceeding to theme-writing, the teacher's care, after he has seen to the grammatical purity of the pupil's compositions, should be chiefly directed to the supervision of their rhetorical qualities. A heavy hand will here be needed, as the tendency of imaginative youth is to run riot among the flowers of the language. The first requisites he should exact are Simplicity and Clearness; after that may come Strength. Perhaps no better rules can be given, as directions to the pupil in attaining these requisites, than the old and simple ones of Lindley Murray, which we fear are, in these modern days, not so familiar as they ought to be, and hence may here be quoted:

I. "Avoid," says Lindley Murray, "all such words and phrases as are not adapted to the ideas you mean to communicate, or which are less significant than others of those ideas.

2. During the course of the sentence the scene should be changed as little as possible, i. e. [do not let the mind be hurried by sudden transitions from person to person, or from subject to subject].

3. Never crowd into one sentence things which have so little connection that they could

bear to be divided into two or three sentences; and keep clear of all unnecessary parentheses.

4. For promoting the strength of a sentence, prune it of all redundant words and members: much force is added to a sentence by brevity.

5. Attend particularly to the use of copulatives, relatives, and all the particles employed

for transition and connection.

6. Dispose of the capital word, or words, so that they may make the greatest impression; and, when the subject admits of it, attend to the climax of a sentence.

7. A weaker assertion or proposition should never come after a stronger; when a sentence consists of two members, the longer should generally be the concluding one.

8. Avoid concluding a sentence with an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word; and be careful not to misplace an adverb.

[There is no word in the English language, says a modern authority in grammar, which is so frequently misplaced as only. Hence, it is important to lay down the rule with regard to it Only limits the word or words immediately following it; Alone, limits the word or words immediately preceding it.]

9. In the members of a sentence, where two another, whether either a resemblance or an opthings are compared or contrasted with one position is intended to be expressed, some resemblance in the language and construction should be preserved. When the things themselves correspond to each other, we naturally expect to find a similar correspondence in the words.

10. Attend to the harmony and easy flow of the words and members.

II. The same word should not be repeated too often in the same sentence or paragraph, though the sense should not be sacrificed to avoid repetition.

12. Long and short sentences should be agreeably interspersed in a paragraph; the ear tires of a number of sentences of similar construction following each other with monotonous regularity."

In setting themes for composition the teacher will do well at first to avoid subjects that make unusual demands upon the pupil's powers of reflection, unless they are familiar to him. Narrative composition, on some incident or story; on some familiar object or feature of local interest; or on some character in, or event of, history, will be found much more suitable. At first a skeleton, or scheme of arrangement in the topics, should be supplied, such as the following:

In Biography: 1, Place and circumstances of birth; 2, Youth and education; 3, Occupation of life, and circumstances determining that occupation; 4, Progress in life-work; 5, Death and attendant circumstances; and 6, Reflections on the character, and lessons drawn from the life, passed under review.

In History: 1, The event itself; 2, Cause of occasion of it; 3, The time and place; 4, The manner of its happening and attendant circumstances; and 5, The result: what it produced or effected.

Before taking up themes for composition, a few hints or counsels may perhaps be acceptable by young students who desire to escape the pitfalls on the road to attainment in good writing. The rules laid down by the grammarians as aids to the accurate writing of the language are frequently transgressed, even by good writers, sometimes from ignorance and sometimes from carelessness. A common defect arises from false concords, that is, from using the wrong gender, number, case or tense, and from the lack in most grammars of illustrative examples of common errors. To the foregoing hints we shall add such instances of improprieties in the speaking or writing of English as are commonly to be heard or met with, in the hope that the young student of the language who dips into this department may profit thereby. The hints appended are taken partly from Prof. Nichol's "Primer of English Composition" (London: Macmillan & Co.; New York: The American Book Co. Price 35 cents).

FALSE CONCORDS

G.M.A.

I. Mistakes in GENDER are almost confined to confusions in the use of figurative language; e. g., "The cities who contended for Homer" is an over-violent personification. Observe that "which" is no longer applied, as in Shakespeare's time, to persons, except in asking a question "Which of the brothers?" or in reference to an alternative, "I know not which of the two." "That," on the other hand, may be used of both persons and things

"We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea."

II. WRONG CASES occur most frequently in the use of the pronouns, especially when they are separated, by some intervening clause, from the nouns to which they refer; e. g.

"We shall speedily become as poor as them [they]."

He that can doubt whether he be anything I speak not to."

Who of all the men in the world do you think I saw?"

"Whom do men say that I am?" These and similar errors may be detected by supplying the omitted words, or by changing the construction.

Observe that "I esteem you more than

The collective force of "and" or the disjunctive force of "or" is forgotten in the following:

"Both minister and magistrate is compelled to choose between his duty and his profession."

"A feeble, harsh or obscure style are [is] always faults [a fault].

"When the helplessness of childhood. or the frailty of women make an appeal.'

As a rule the verb agrees with the subject, but it may agree with the predicate when the latter comes first in the sentence, as

e. g.

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Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.'

IV. WRONG MOOD AND TENSE. The most frequent errors in English under this head should be avoided.

Observe the SEQUENCE OF TENSES.

(a) Generally a Past tense goes with a Past tense; a Present with a Present or a Future tense. The following false sequences will illustrate the rule:

"No writer would write a book unless he thinks it will be read."

This must be either "no writer will unless he thinks it will," etc., or, "no writer would unless he thought it would,"

etc.

"Before six months were past the paper was known in almost every village; while at the extremities of the country it circulates every morning."

The second statement should be made in a separate sentence.

PROPRIETY IN THE USE OF WORDS

Perfectly good English words may be misused by being employed so as to convey either no sense or a wrong sense. They are wrong words because they are in the wrong places. In good writing every word and phrase must be made to bear the sense properly belonging to it, that is, the sense which etymology or established usage has assigned. When this rule is violated an impropriety occurs. The main sources of impropriety in English are:

I. NEGLECT OF THE PROPER SEQUENCE OF PARTICLES. Nothing but study of the best writers and practice in composition will enable us to decide what are the prepositions and conjunctions. that ought to go with certain verbs. The following illustrate some common blunders :

"It was characterized with eloquence," read "by."

"Some anomalies have never been excepted against by any writer," read taken exception to."

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2. WANT OF DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN SYNONYMS. The number of real synonyms, or words having precisely the same signification, is in any language very limited. In general the terms so called merely approximate without coinciding: there are shades of difference between them. The exactitude of an author's style is greatly determined by his appreciation of those differences; by his making use of the precise word which in the circumstances is the fittest, i. e., which will best express his thought.

Gross instances of impropriety, as "Herculanean labors," for "Herculean," "The Anatomy of Bulgaria," for "Autonomy,' That subject should be tattooed," for "tabooed," result from confusion of sound, or from confusion of quite different senses, as "Harvey invented the circulation of the blood, Galileo discovered the telescope." These and the like are too glaring to be frequent; but there are few writers who do not occasionally err in their selection from pairs of terms more closely related. Such are: Abstain and Forbear; Consent and Comply; Hereafter and Henceforth; Apparent and Manifest; Weary and Fatigued ; Difficulty and Obstacle; Avow and Confess; Construe and Construct, etc.

Warnings like the following may be indefinitely multiplied from the works of even justly celebrated authors:

"Some pains were thrown away in attempting to retrieve the names of those to whom he alludes," read “recall.”

"I doubt that his partiality has carried him too far," read 'fear."

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"Warburton's infidelity was greatly suspected," read "fidelity," or "he was suspected of infidelity."

"In this passage he might find matter even to prompt risibility," read "laughter."