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MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
Messrs. Melville, Mullen, and Slade have
sent us the first two volumes of Mr. Rus-
kins "Modem Painters," issued in a con-
venient form, and at a reasonable price, by
Mr. George Allen, of Sunnyside, Orpington.
This edition will place Mr. Ruskin's famous
work, the original editions of which are
scarce and expensive, within the reach of
persons of moderate means. Mr. Ruskin,
although eccentric and fanciful, incoherent
and inconsistent, in much of his art
criticism, has exercised great influence upon
the art and taste of the Victorian era, and
as a master of English prose, he is acknow-
ledged to have few, if any, superiors.
The English pass work prescribed for
matriculation at the Melbourne University
in a previous year bore the appropriate
title, "Chosen English." Miss Adele Ellis,
B.A., who supplied the necessary introduc-
tions and notes for each piece selected, has
been entrusted with the preparation of the
pass work for 1898-9, and it now appears as
"More Chosen English," which is not quite
so happy a superscription. Have not
"Last Words" and "More Last Words"
had witticisms passed upon them till we
have all become weary ? There will have
to be a new departure with issue No. 3.
Why was it not taken with No. 2 ? Bu
the title is a small matter. Miss Ellis has
performed the duty required of her admir-
ably. The English chosen consists, in
verse, of selections fpom Dryden (Alex-
ander's Feast), Pope (Epistle to Dr.
Arbuthnot), Goldsmith (The Retalia-
tion), and Keats (Eve of St. Agnes).
Prose is represented by Gibbon's autobio-
graphy, and short essays by Goldsmith and
Leigh Hunt. Miss Ellis has nice taste,
so that in her notes she not only clears up
the meaning of words which have become
obsolete, and tells us what are meant by
allusions and references which have ceased
to be obvious, but calls attention to literary
beauties which are to be noticed by the
way. This is particularly evident in the
note appended to Keats's "Eve of St.
Agnes." "Chosen English" is commended
to young persons who are ambitious of
shining as writers. They will learn a great
deal about English composition from a
work of this kind, which teaches by ex-
ample. Much of the writing offered to the
press in the form of essays, sketches, and
stories, is written in a slovenly manner.
Would-be contributors whose MSS. are re-
turned because the composition is pro-
nounced to be poor, now and then write
back to say that they cannot see what is
wrong. Their eyes are not opened so that
they may see. A text book of this kind
is capable of opening the eyes of many of
the blind. "More Chosen English" is pub-
lished by Melville, Mullen, and Slade, book-
sellers to the University. The selections
occupy about 80 pages, and the notes about
150.
Mr. Joshua Lake has prepared a "Manual
of Etymology" for the University matricu-
lation. It goes with "More Chosen Eng-
lish," and gives the derivation of the
1,500 words occurring in the selections of
prose and verse which that work contains.
Mr. Lake's manual is a dictionary in little.
The information given is as complete as any
student can desire, or as any examiner
should exact.
This is what Mr. Lake has to say about
"lavender" :—
"Lavender, an aromatic herb. French, lavande;
Italian, lavanda, a washing, lavender (used for lay-
ing on freshly-washed linen still to this day in
England). Derived from the Latin, lavare, to
wash.
"A laundress is a lavenderess (old spelling,
lauenderess), pronounced lahn-dress, not lawndress.
In nearly every English word aun spells ahn, not
awn ; e.g., aunt, launch, daunce, chaunce, chaunt,
graunt, launce (now written dance, chance,
chant, grant, lance), haunch, haunt, vaunt (now
more often pronounced hawnch, hawnt, vawnt),
&c. The words all come through the French, anil
had the vowel sound of the original French nasal
"an," as in tante ; the spelling "aun" was the
original English way of representing this sound,
which during the last few years is being misread
'awn.' But an Englishman still stares when he
hears Launceston so corruptly pronounced Lawn-
cess'-tun, for Lahnce's-tun, or Lahnce-tun."
From this it will be seen that Mr. Lake
aims at being entertaining where he can.
But "during the last few years" is vague
language to use in a text book ; and so
very few persons say Lawn-cess'-tun that
Mr. Lake need not have condescended to
notice the practice they follow. "Aw" for
"au" is anything but a usage of yester-
day ; it can be traced back, we fancy, in
Australia, to this date of the arrival of
the first north countryman. The "Manual"
is published by Melville, Mullen, and Slade.
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