“Behold this apple lies on gold, and its form is most beautiful,” and he reached it to the stranger who was the friend of his youth. But the stranger cut the apple in twain, and behold in the middle of it was a worm ! From the German of Krummacher. 110. -ON KINDNESS TO ANIMALS. be-ne-vol-ence in-ev-it-a-ble a-bridge Kindness to animals is no unworthy exercise of benevolence. We hold that the lives of brutes perish with their breath, and that they are never to be clothed again with consciousness. The inevitable shortness, then, of their existence should plead for them touchingly. The insects on the surface of the water, poor short-lived things, who would needlessly abridge their dancing pleasure of to-day? Such feelings we should have towards the whole animate creation. To those animals over which we are masters, for however short a time, we have positive duties to perform. This seems too obvious to be insisted upon; but there are persons who act as though they thought they could buy the right of ill-treating any of God's creatures. We should never in any way consent to the illtreatment of animals, because the fear of ridicule, or some other fear, prevents our interfering. As а to there being anything really trifling in any act of humanity, however slight, it is moral blindness to suppose so. The few moments in the course of each day which a man, absorbed in some worldly pursuit, may carelessly expend in kind words or trifling charities to those around himand kindness to an animal is one of these--are perhaps, in the sight of Heaven, the only time that he has lived to any purpose worth recording. Arthur Helps. EXERCISES IN ETYMOLOGY AND SPELLING. WORDS are either primary, compound, or derivative. A primary word is one in its simplest form, as -boy, horse, red. A compound word is made up of two or more simple words, as—coach-man, post-boy, horseman, foot-man, rail-way. A derivative word is made out of some simple word by the addition of a prefix or a suffix. A prefix is an addition of one or more letters before a word, asin-spect to look into. ad-ore to pray to. im-merse to dip into. inter-change to change between. pre-cede to go before. A suffix is an addition of one or more letters after a word, asman-ly like a man. prince-ly like a prince. quarrel-some full of quarrel. greed-y full of greed. life-less without life. act-or one who acts. = Some of the most frequent prefixes are given below. Many of them are really Latin prepositions, and it is to be observed that the final letter of a preposition, when placed before another word, usually becomes, for the sake of more easy pronunciation, the same as the first letter of the word before which it is placed. Thus the Latin preposition“ ad "_" to "—assumes the following forms when placed before words beginning with different letters of the alphabet ac, af, ag, al, an, ar, as, and at, in such words asac-cept, af-firm, ag-gress-or, al-lude, an-nounce, , ar-rive, as-cend, at-tend. PREFIXES. VARIATIONS IN FORM. Ab, from abs, a Ad, to ac, af, ag, al, an, ap, ar, as, at Ante, before Anti, against ant Circum, around circu Cum, with con, col, com, cor, cog, co Contra, against counter, contro De, down, from Dis, asunder, and some di, dif times not Ex, out of, from ec, ef, e Extra, beyond In, into, in, and some ig, il, im, ir times not Inter, between Intro, within * These prefixes should be carefully committed to memory. AD, AC, AF, AG, AL, AN, AP, AR, AS, AT, A, to. ag-gress-ive ar-rest ar-rear ar-rog-ate as-sent al-lure as-sort at-tain at-test at-tune a-scribe ANTE, before. ante-cedent ante-chamber ante-date ante-dilu-vi-an ANTI, against. anti-dote anti-pathy anti-pod-es anti-type CIRCUM, round. circum-scribe circum-vent circum-spect circum-nav-ig-ate |