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people of the county, which not only caused them to make common cause at once with the men of the Eastern Counties, but drew to the front men of a certain kind of ability--such as Wat Tyler and the priest John Ball-who marshalled the malcontents into something like order, and put them under leadership.

This second cause of offence is well known by tradition to almost every one. A poll-tax, that is to say, a tax of so much a head-in this case it was fourpence had been ordered to be levied on all persons above the age of fifteen. The tax was very unpopular in itself, but the manner in which it was raised rendered it almost unbearable. To begin with, it was not committed to the royal officers to collect the money, but men of influence about the Court gave the king a certain sum in lieu of the tax, and then were permitted to make as much profit as they could out of the tax-gathering itself. Under these circumstances it is no wonder the tax was hated; the farmers of it naturally strove to make the yield as large as possible, and they instructed their agents to see that no one who was liable to the tax-every man and woman above fifteen years of age was liable escaped payment.

One of these agents came to Dartford, in Kent, and began to pursue his business. The household of John of Dartford, a hellier or tiler, consisted of himself, his wife, his daughter, and two other persons. John himself was from home, at his work roofing a house, when the tax-gatherer came and demanded the dues. John's wife paid for herself, her husband, and the two servants or apprentices, but claimed exemption for her daughter, as being under the taxable age. The man disputed the woman's statement about her daughter, who, he averred, must be quite fifteen, and to this he held, demanding the tax for her, in spite of her mother's statement, which was supported by the witness of all her neighbours. High words followed, the tiler's wife refusing to submit to an injustice, and the collector, presuming on his position and his authority, speaking in most unseemly way about the maiden. A friend ran off to where John was working, and told him what was going on at home, and probably magnified the true state of the case, after the manner of rumour-bearers. Anyhow, John no sooner heard his neighbour's words than he jumped down from the work he was engaged upon, and snatching up his heavy helving hammer, ran away home. Arrived at his own door, he found a crowd assembled, the tax-man still insisting on the polltax for the maiden, and in the very act of taking an indecent liberty, for the purpose, as he said, of ascertaining whether she was of full age or not.

The same practice, it seems, had been pursued in other places, where the people had not had the strength or the spirit to resist it; but Dartford was not the place in which to try such a thing, and John the Tiler was the last man in Dartford to put up with it. The scoundrel collector had barely time to draw his sword, which was all too useless as a guard, when the enraged father attacked him. No fence, however well sustained, could ward off the tiler's blow. Quickly the hammer rose in the air, swung by sinewy arms; more quickly still it descended, cleaved a way through the idle guard, which it shivered and broke, and falling with tremendous force on the skull of the collector, dashed out his brains on to the adjacent wall. Without a struggle or a groan the man fell dead, and the people stood around wondering at what was done. Yet no man laid hands on the tiler, no man regarded him as a murderer; and when he broke the silence, and told them in a few short words how that his cause was theirs, that this act for which the collector had died was of a piece with the rest of the treatment the people received from those above them, they rent the air with shouts of approval, and proposed to march at once to Canterbury and join their brethren who were already under arms.

John the Tiler was a working man, and the people he addressed were of the same class. To that class also belonged "the brethren," who were in rebellion all over the Eastern Counties; agricultural labourers, fishermen, and some artisans employed in towns, composed the army-if it could be so called -which Wat Tyler of Maidstone, Jack Straw, Hob the Miller, John Ball, and others, led to Rochester, Canterbury, and Blackheath, and bearded the king even in the Tower of London. Working men alone were concerned in the affair; none of the knights, clergy, lawyers, or landowners taking any part in it, except for its suppression. Had some such men put themselves

at the head of the movement, they might have succeeded in restraining the fury of the multitude, and in directing its energy into a channel where it would have borne good fruit. But there was no Stephen de Langton-no prophet. The people merely knew they were oppressed both by the lords and by the law which the lords had made; they knew not how to provide a remedy. Goaded to desperation, they turned and kicked, as a worm will twist when trampled on, and they became drunk in their fury, and turned away even such sympathy as otherwise there might have been in the breasts of their rulers. With blind guides, demagogues, and men whose heads were turned by the possession of power, "the Commons of England" went from place to place, committing all sorts of excesses, cutting off the heads of all lawyers they could lay hands on, burning books and records, houses and colleges, opening the prisons, getting very drunk on the wine for which they ransacked the cellars of castles and mansions, and, for the purpose of enjoying the contrast, making earls, barons, and knights attend upon them in the capacity of servants and stable-men. To women, however, it is not reported that they did any harm, though they sadly frightened the Princess Dowager of Wales, widow of the Black Prince, and mother of King Richard, by detaining her on her journey from Canterbury to London, and declining to let her proceed until she had kissed some of them, which she did, the old chroniclers report, with a very ill grace, though glad to get away at such a price.

But what was the cause of this rising of the Commons? The end of it we know. The rebels marched from all the home counties to London, sacked the Temple, the Duke of Lancaster's Palace of the Savoy, and burnt many other houses; they broke into the Tower, cut off the head of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with that of the Prior of St. John's, and some other noblemen; and proposed to do the like to all the knights and lords in the country, though they still professed affection for the king, and rallied to the cry of "King Richard and the true Commons." Then came the end of all. Many of the insurgents had left London with charters of liberties which they obtained from the king, but Wat Tyler, at the head of several thousands, chiefly Kentish men, remained, and venturing to be insolent to the king himself at an interview which took place in Smithfield, was slain in view of his host by Sir William Walworth, the Lord Mayor of London. The men, disconcerted by the fall of their leader, were partly cajoled, partly driven from the metropolis, and when they were dispersed, commissions were issued for the trial and punishment of the leaders, the charters already granted were taken away, and the people were reduced to a state of bondage worse than before. The commissions to punish were carried out with so much excessive zeal, that even in those days, when might was not over squeamish about the way in which it kicked right against the pricks, an Act of Indemnity was thought necessary to hide the acts of the officers of the Crown.

But what was the cause of the rebellion ? We have seen a part of it in the odious claim made by Sir Simon Burley at Gravesend, and in the outrageous conduct of the tax-gatherer at Dartford. These, however, were only the outward, visible signs of a very oppressive state of things which had their foundation in the laws and institutions of the country.

In King John's time (1199-1215), when the population of England was under two millions, there were upwards of one million villeins, that is to say, half the population were in a state of bondage. A villein was one, man or woman, who was sold as a separate chattel, or with the stock on the land-one who, is the terse language of the chronicler, "knew not in the evening what he was to do in the morning, but he was bound to do whatever he was commanded." His children were slaves like himself-hence Sir Simon Burley's claim to the Gravesend man -he might be beaten, chained, ill-fed, over-worked; his master might do anything to him short of killing him. The whole of the agricultural labourers were of this condition. In towns there were free workmen and free labourers, but their number was not large, and their influence was a creature of slow growth. Their wages were, moreover, fixed, not by the means of competition in an open market, but by regulations made by those who employed them. Thus, in the reign of Edward I. (A.D. 1272), the wages of car enters, tilers, masons, and plasterers, in London, where the terms were probably more liberal than in the provinces, were fixed at fourpence a day. As time went on, the number of free men increased, both in town

and country, chiefly through the medium of the Church, which gradually emancipated a large number of those whom it claimed as its villeins.

In the reign of Edward III., however, another cause operated to enlarge their ranks. A dreadful disease, known as the Black Death, which appears to have originated in China, in which country thirteen millions of men, women, and children are said to have died, swept across Europe from the East, and coming to England, destroyed half the population. Villeins were left without masters, masters without villeins, and death in many cases made equal the high and low. After the Black Death went away, the number of workmen was found to be much reduced; the price of their labour, therefore, ought to have been much higher, in accordance with the law of supply and demand, since the demand had increased while the supply had diminished. In the country, which the ravages of the plague had been desolating, there was a cry for more wages, and the number of men who were freed by their owners' death from bondage made the number of wages-takers formidable. The men would not work without "outrageous and excessive hire," as the employers said; so a Parliament, consisting wholly of employers, passed of a law, called The Statute of Labourers, by which the agriculturists were fixed at the price they had been before the plague. An ox-herd had six shillings and eightpence a year; a farm bailiff, thirteen shillings and fourpence; and a shepherd, ten shillings a year, and clothing; and no man was to quit his work without leave, under pain of being put in the stocks. An ordinance, made about the year 1370, ordered that saddlers, skinners, and tanners should be "chastised for charging excessively."

wages

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Eastern Empire.

Olaf IV.

Eric III.

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Robert II.
Robert III.

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Thus we find that among the principal causes of the rising of John Palalogus. 1354 the labouring classes in 1382, were the practice of villeinage, which was not yet extinct, the unfair and oppressive regulations about wages, the dearness of living, and the demands, barbarously made, and frequently brutally enforced, for taxes out of the people, notwithstanding.

As has been said, the people got little at the moment by their rebellion, the disastrous conduct and termination of which left them with the fetters of bondage more firmly riveted on their necks. A fresh and more stringent Statute of Labourers was passed, and the poor people in country places suffered on for many years.

In towns the workmen were better off-better able to defend themselves and the interests of the employers could not there be advanced without a corresponding advantage to the men. Some Acts of Henry VII. (1485-1509) and Henry VIII. (1509-1547), which aimed at fixing the price of skilled labour, proved to be abortive, and things remained on the old basis till 1563, when a law was passed, which remained unrepealed till 1813, though it must have become inoperative in many places before that date. This was, perhaps, one of the most exceptionable laws ever put on the statute roll. Justices of the peace in the country, and the mayor, sheriffs, or other authorities in towns, were to meet every year after Easter, and taking into consideration the price of living, and of house rent, the demand and supply for labour, were to fix the wages of all workmen and labourers for the ensuing year. Any one giving more than these wages was to be fined five pounds, and put in prison for ten days; any one taking more was to be imprisoned No workman or labourer was to leave his work without a passport sealed with the town seal, and approved by two householders. If he did so he was liable to scourging, exposure in the stocks, and imprisonment. The hours of labour were fixed, for weekly or daily labourers, at from five a.m. till between seven and eight p.m., between the middle of March and the middle of September, two hours and a half being allowed for meals and refreshment.

for three weeks.

France, Kings of.
Charles V.
Charles VI.

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It will be noticed that the word "anti-pope" is added to the names of two of the Popes of Rome above. The anti-pope was a pope chosen by the will of some king, or the intrigues of a party hostile to the reigning pope, who had been elected by the College of Cardinals. Urban VI., for instance, had been chosen by the cardinals to please the people of Rome, who wished for an Italian pope, who would reside in the Eternal City, and not at Avignon or elsewhere, as some of the popes who preceded him had done. On his election the French and Spanish cardinals retired to Provence, and chose Robert of Geneva to occupy the papal chair. This ecclesiastic assumed the title of Clement VII., and as soon as his election was made known of a house divided against itself, France, Spain, Scotland, and Christendom was riven asunder, and presented the appearance Savoy declaring for Clement VII., while Italy, Germany, England, and other parts of Europe acknowledged Urban VI. as the visible head of the Church. As a matter of course, these rivals for the enjoyment and management of the temporalities of the 'Vicar of Christ," as the bishops of Rome delight to style themselves, utterly ignored the "new commandment" of the meek and gentle Master whom they professed to follow. They solemnly cursed each other by bell, book, and candle, and each declared his opponent, and those who supported him, excommunicated. Those who gave the matter thoughtful consideration soon began to see that the dogma of the infallibility of the popes must be a mistake, and the quarrels of the angry claimants for the chair of St. Peter, in the persons of the popes and antipopes, kindled the spark that smouldered till the sixteenth century, and then suddenly broke forth into the glorious blaze of the Reformation.

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Such was the state of things till 1813, except that there were besides some very objectionable laws, punishing with great severity all workmen who combined to raise the price of their labour, and to make an open market. These laws were, how- 1. WHEN a number or thing is divided into two equal parts, ever repealed in 1825, since which date the workman has been each of these parts is called one half; if the number or thing be as free as the merchant to buy and sell his labour in the best divided into three equal parts, each is called one third; if it is market, and even to a great extent to make the market. He is divided into four equal parts, each of the parts is called one now, politically speaking, the equal of any of his fellow country-fourth, or one quarter; and so universally when a number or men, and as far removed in every respect from his prototype as thing is divided into any number of equal parts, the parts take he existed in the days of King Richard II. as the freeman is their name from the number of parts into which the thing or

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One of these parts, or a collection containing any number of them, is called a fraction of the original number or thing.

Thus, if a straight line be divided into seven parts, each part is one-seventh of the line, and any number of the parts-as, for instance, five of them, i.e., five-sevenths of the whole-is a fraction of the whole line.

The number of parts into which the unit or whole is divided is called the denominator, because it indicates or denominates the number of parts into which the whole is divided.

The particular number of these parts taken to form any fraction of the whole is called the numerator, because it expresses the number of parts taken.

Thus in the case given above, 7 is the denominator, because the line is divided into seven parts, and 5 is the numerator of the fraction.

rator takes exactly so many times more of them. Similarly it follows, that if we divide both the numerator and the denomi nator by the same quantity, the value of the fraction remains unaltered.

7. To reduce a fraction to its lowest terms.

The numerator and denominator of a fraction are sometimes called the terms of the fraction. If both the numerator and denominator of a fraction can be divided by the same number (an operation which we have just seen does not alter its value), it is said not to be in its lowest terms. A fraction, then, may be defined to be in its lowest terms when the numerator and denominator have no common factors. Hence to reduce a fraction to its lowest terms, we must first find the greatest common measure of the numerator and denominator, and then divide them both by it.

EXAMPLE.-Reduce to its lowest terms.

Fractions are expressed by writing the numerator above the denominator, and drawing a line between them. Thus the above fraction would be written, one half would be written, fore dividing numerator and denominator by 9 we get the frac

eight-ninths, §, and so on.

The word fraction, which means a part or portion broken from any integer or whole, is derived from fractus, broken, a part of the Latin verb frangere, to break. The word integer is simply a Latin adjective meaning fresh, entire, or unbroken, which has been adopted into the English language.

2. A proper fraction is one whose numerator is less than its denominator, as, 4, 8.

An improper fraction is one whose numerator is not less than its denominator, as,, etc.

A mixed number consists of a whole number and a fraction expressed together; for example, 3 and. This is generally written thus, 3; similarly, 43, 71, etc.

Fractions in which the denominators are 10, or any power of 10 (Lesson VI., Art. 5), are called Decimal Fractions, or Decimals. All other fractions are called Vulgar Fractions.

A compound fraction is a fraction of a fraction, as of, of of; for any fractional part of a unit may be regarded as a new unit. This fractional part may itself be divided into any number of equal parts, and a certain number of them may be taken.

A complex, or mixed fraction, is one which has a fraction in its numerator or denominator, or in both; as, for instance

31 2 48 } of
31 51

of 9

The greatest common measure of 27 and 36 is 9, and there.

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tion expressed in its lowest terms. It is not necessary always to find the G. C. M. of the numerator and denominator, but it is often more convenient in practice to divide the numerator and denominator by numbers which are seen to be factors common to both until we arrive at the lowest terms. Thus

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2. In a joint-stock company which was divided into 10,800 shares, what part of the whole concern belongs to the individual who holds 4,050 shares ?

3. A ship is worth £21,600; what fraction of the ship belongs

Every whole number may be looked upon as a fraction, of which to him who contributed to this sum no less than £12,960? the denominator is unity; thus 5 is §.

3. Fractions, it will readily be seen, are expressions of unexecuted division, the numerator being the dividend, and the denominator the divisor. Take, for example, . We are supposed to have one unit or thing to be divided, and dividing it into 9 equal parts, to take 4 of them. But it will be the same thing if we take 4 such units, and dividing this collection into 9 equal parts, take one of these parts. This gives the same fraction of the original unit as before; but, looked at in this light, it expresses the quotient which results from dividing the numerator by the denominator.

4. To multiply a fraction by a whole number. Multiply the numerator by the whole number. For instance, to multiply by 4. Here the unit is divided into 9 parts, two of which are taken; four times as many of these parts will give eight parts, or; therefore 4 × } = {.

=

5. To divide a fraction by a whole number. Either divide the numerator or multiply the denominator by the whole number. Thus, 2; for, the unit being divided into 7 parts, 6 are taken, halving which gives 3 parts, 5 or. Again, ÷ 2 = In the unit is divided into 7×2 7 parts, 5 of which are taken. In the unit is divided into 14 parts, 5 of which are taken. But each of these latter 14th parts is equal to each one of the former 7th parts divided by 2, and therefore five of the latter will be equal to five of the former divided by 2, or

÷ 2.

6. From the above reasoning we see that it produces exactly the same result whether we divide the numerator or multiply the denominator by any number. Hence, if we multiply both numerator and denominator by the same quantity, the value of the fraction is unaltered. Multiplying the denominator divides the unit into so many more parts, and multiplying the nume

8. To reduce an improper fraction to a whole or mixed number. Divide the numerator by the denominator. If there is no remainder, the quotient will be the equivalent whole number. If there is a remainder, the improper fraction is equivalent to a mixed number, of which the quotient is the whole number (or, as it is called, the integral part), and the remainder the nume rator of the fractional part, which will evidently have the same denominator as the original improper fraction. Thus, = 3, a whole number; and 23 33. Since 7 sevenths make one whole unit, 23 sevenths will make as many whole units as 7 is con tained in 23, i.e., 3 whole units, and 2 sevenths over. Hence 2 = 37.

=

9. To convert a mixed number into an improper fraction. Multiply the integral part by the denominator of the frac tional part, to which product add the numerator of the fractional part. This sum will be the numerator, and the denominator of the fractional part will be the required denominator. Thus, 49 = 7 × 4+6 7 x 4 =; for 49 = 4 + 9 = = 7 + 1 = ? + §, and 28 sevenths and 6 sevenths make 34 sevenths, or .

7

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ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY.-V.

THE EAR (continued).

THE external ear of brutes is often so marked a feature in the outline of their bodies, it adds so much grace and finish to the head, its movements give such animation to the gestures, and it is itself an organ so ornamental, that it is almost superfluous to remind the reader that its form and foldings are very various throughout the class Mammalia. Every one who is alive to the beauties of animated nature-and there are few who are dead to their attractions-must have looked with delight on the ear of the squirrel, with its tassel of soft brown hair. That universal favourite, the rabbit, the dainty little fennec fox, and even the fallow deer, despite the excelling majesty of its horns, would all cut but sorry figures without the external ear. Among the strangest forms of ears, we may mention that of the African elephant, which makes him look like a warrior armed with a double shield. So flat and ample are these ears that Sir Samuel Baker cut a tolerably good mattress out of one of them. The membraneous and delicate ear of our larger

It has been remarked, that while the ears of carnivorous animals are directed forwards, those of herbivorous animals are turned backwards; so that, in the pursuit of the latter by the former, the ears of both are so placed as to catch the sound from the object whose movements it is of the highest importance they should be acquainted with. Perhaps this idea has been dwelt on too much, yet every one must have noticed. how the cat, the fox, and the ferret, carry their ears pricked. forward, while the ears of the deer and hare are, at least, as readily turned backward as forward. In the case of the hare, however, the shape and direction of the ear seems to be given in relation to the habit it has of crouching in its form. While in its form, the long ears stretch along the flanks, with their orifices turned outward, and must be very efficient in apprehending the sounds which proceed from the feet of man or dog as they beat the stubble.

The concha, or external ear, is very generally found through. out the whole of the class Mammalia, but in a few it is "conspicuous from its absence." Thus, two of our native in, sectivorous mammals, the mole and the shrew, are without it

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English bat is proportionately as monstrous, but instead of being flat, its foldings are so decided, that it looks like an ear within an ear. The long trumpet-shaped ear of ruminants and horses, capable of being turned in any direction, is admirably suited by its shape, and by the fringe of hair which encircles it, and partially extends across its orifice, to accomplish the double purpose of receiving aerial waves, and excluding any small particles of dust, rain, or hail, which would otherwise get down to the sensitive tympanum. This office of protection is, indeed, by no means unimportant, as any foreign body on the drum membrane causes exquisite annoyance, and the steadiest horse will become restive when thus troubled. In the setter and spaniel dogs, the function of protection seems paramount to that of collection of sounds, so that the thick matted ear hangs down, when at rest, right over the orifice of the ear. In the above cases the ear is not only an organ of definite utility, but of conspicuous beauty, and, indeed, it is a fine exemplification of how use and beauty go hand in hand throughout all God's works. Why stupidity should, in popular estimation, be especially associated with the cars of the ass, is even more inexplicable than why it should be considered as the special attribute of that much-abused animal. The fairy Titania, when "enamoured of an ass," showed a discriminating appreciation of good points when she kissed the "fair large ears" of her "gentle joy."

In the whale and his tribe, it is not only absent, but the very foramen which leads to the internal ear in this enormous animal will scarcely admit a pin. Indeed, this entrance to the ear seems to be retained only to establish or strengthen the affinity between the whale and the land mammalia, for the impressions of sound are probably conveyed to the internal ear through the substance of the animal's body, as in the case of fish. The tympanic cavity, however, is kept supplied with air by an eustachian tube that communicates with the passage which runs to the blow-hole near that orifice; so that when the monster discharges the air from the reservoir of its lungs with so forcible a jet that it carries the sea-water before it like a fountain, the air of the tympanic cavity is, at the same time, partially renewed; and when he plunges once more unseen into the depths, this cavity is in communication with the air he carries with him. This arrangement, whereby sound, which has been conveyed from the exterior through the solid structures of the body, is made afterwards to traverse, or to be regenerated in, an internal air cavity, is not uncommon among the denizens of the water, and sometimes it is effected by such singular contrivances, as we shall find when we describe the ear of some fish, that we are almost justified in supposing that there is some quality in the vibrations of an elastic fluid, like the air, which makes it a better medium for transmitting sound to the nerve fitted to

receive such impressions, than those inelastic or solid media in which its vibrations are more energetic. This is the more singular, because in no case is air or gas the last substance through which sound passes to the sentient nerve, only it seems desirable that it should be one link in the chain for conveying sound. It is difficult to conceive how the message should be made more distinct by the fact, that air carries it for one postal stage in the central part of its course, yet such seems to be the

case.

abstract his thoughts from intrusive noises, and directing his attention, even when most attentive, to the thoughts that sounds embody rather than to the sounds themselves, is at a disadvantage when brought into contact with the unthinking brute, and he will sometimes pass through scenes teeming with life, and think them inanimate solitudes, because he, the object of dread, has no corresponding acuteness of observation to detect the animals which hide themselves at his approach. Yet, as we have seen, his organ is as delicate and complicated as any of theirs, and the disadvantage arises rather from neglect than deficiency, and when the kind of impression comes which strikes the mind, the sense is found to be wonderfully wakeful. Many will remember the thrilling anecdote of the Scotch woman, who, when besieged at Delhi, expecting with all the Europeans nothing but cruel massacre, for no earthly help seemed available, started up, and said, "I hear them; they are playing 'The Campbells are coming.' And those who then thought her mad rejoiced with her on the same day, for a regiment of Scottish soldiers had marched to their relief.

In the case of the whale, the bony sheath of the tympanum is not embedded in the substance of the ear-bone, as in other animals, but hangs below it, and is shaped like a scroll, or like the shell of a volute, or bulla, with a very thick column or inner central part, and a very thin outer lip. By this thin outer margin of the scroll it is attached to the remainder of the earbone, but the attachment is so slight that in the dry skull it is easily broken off. In some geological strata this part of the ear-bone is found commonly, while the other bones of the whale are rare; and some attribute this anomaly to the easy severance of the bone, by fracture, from the rest of the skull, just mentioned. It is supposed that from the huge rotting carcase, distended with gas, and beaten about by the waves, the dense tympanic bones may have dropped and been quickly covered by preserving sediment, while the remainder of the animal, drifted SECTION XVIII.-DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VERBS OF THE to shore, and being left to the influence of the atmosphere, left no other vestige behind to attest the presence of these whales in the ancient seas.

We have dwelt thus long on the outer courts of the ear, in the animals that give suck to their young, because the variety displayed in these non-essential parts of the ear is not shown in the parts of the internal or essential ear. All the parts of the internal ear, the semi-circular canals, the vestibule, with its oval hole, and the cochlea, are always present in all mammals. There are, however, some slight differences in the proportion of the parts; thus the so-called circular staircases which mount the cochlea have three and a-half turns, or whirls, in the guineapig and porcupine, and only one and a-half in the whale, and in this last it can scarcely be called a staircase at all, as it does not mount upward, but only curls inwards on the same plane, like the hollow of the shell of the nautilus, instead of that of the trochus, or top-shell. There is some variation also in the little chain of bones which spans the drum from the drum membrane to the oval hole; thus the hammer and anvil bones are fused together in the pouched animals. These slight differences, however, do not invalidate the statement that the ears of all mammals are made on the same pattern; and if the reader have the patience to accomplish the by no means easy task of dissecting out from its bony case the ear of any such animal, while referring to the description of the human ear, given in the first article on the ear, he will be able to identify the several parts, or if he fail to do so, he may search again, for they are all there, though minute and difficult to trace.

The efficiency of the sense of hearing in brutes is a matter of notoriety. Whoever has had the opportunity of watching a herd of wild animals, while unobserved by them, will have been struck with the vigilance with which each unaccustomed sound is remarked. The electric start, by which every individual of the

community is thrown at once into an attitude of attention and preparation for a hasty flight, is a beautiful sight. When we remember how many animals are nocturnal in their habits, how many find their home in dense tangled forests, and also how necessary it is that dispersed members of a gregarious tribe, the sexes of wandering species, the helpless young, and protecting dams, should be able to find each other, it is not surprising that this sense is made so wonderfully acute. So much is this sense relied upon for the above-named purposes, that the crafty backwoodsman finds no better expedient for alluring shy game to within reach of his rifle than by imitating the call of the species; yet so discriminating are the wild animals, that the slightest error in the intonation, or even the frequency, of the cry, will send them scampering away from the ambush.

It would seem as though man, who employs this organ so generally in the higher uses of the mind and soul, necessarily sacrifices to these uses some of the acuteness to mere sound of which the ear is capable. The savage starts like the brute when a sound, such as the European would scarcely be aware of, reaches him from the distant hill; but civilised man, who passes his life amidst the hum of crowded cities, striving rather to

LESSONS IN GERMAN.-X.

OLD AND NEW CONJUGATIONS.

VERBS of the Old Conjugation (commonly called irregular verbs) differ from those of the New, not only in respect to terminational variations, but also in regard to changes of the radical vowels, as :-Ich fomme, I come; ich_kam, I came; ich schreibe, I write; ich schrieb, I wrote; ich sehe, I see; ich sah, I saw. (See § 77; also list of irregular verbs, § 78. 1.)

The form of the past participle, in verbs of the Old Conjuga tion, frequently differs from that of the infinitive only by the augment gc, as:-Infinitive, kommen. Past participle, gekommen.

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