Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/730

 thirteen numbers: 1. Constitution of the United States; 2. Articles of Confederation; 3. Declaration of Independence; 4. Washington's Farewell Address; 5. Magna Charta; 6. Vane's "Healing Question"; 7. Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629; 8. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638; 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754; 10. Washington's Inaugurals; 11. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation; 12. "The Federalist," Nos. 1 and 2; 13. The Ordinance of 1787.

A gossipy little book is From Lands of Exile, by Pierre Loti (Gottsberger, 90 cents), consisting of letters written by a French naval officer from Annam and neighboring stations, with a story about "An Old Salt" and his daughter.

A rival of Volapük for the office of the universal language is presented by Alexander Melville Bell, in his pamphlet entitled World-English (N. D. C. Hodges, New York, 25 cents). World-English is the English language unburdened of its chaotic spelling, and with this change Prof. Bell deems it better suited than any other language for international use, on account of its grammatical simplicity and its already wide diffusion. Another use for this simplified form of the language which he urges is in teaching children and foreigners to read the present form, or "literary English," which he does not seek to displace. Prof. Bell recognizes the same sixteen vowel-sounds as the American Philological Association does in its scheme for the phonetic writing of English, for, although he omits two of them from his list, he distinguishes them in his exemplifications. He clings to the peculiar English uses of the vowel-letters, which makes the step from a foreign language to World-English harder, and that from the latter to "literary English" easier, but he distinguishes the unrepresented vowels by the aid of diacritics, in agreement with the usage of other languages. He thus avoids new letters in representing the simple vowels, but introduces one for the diphthong known as "long i", while "long u" (as in mute) he resolves into yu. He proposes no less than nine new letters for unrepresented consonants, three of these being the initial sounds in when and hue, and the sound of r when not before a vowel—refinements of notation which the Association does not deem necessary. In the case of the "obscure" sounds of unaccented vowels, however, he agrees with the Association in not deeming a special marking necessary. If we must have new letters for six or nine consonants, by all means let us take Prof. Bell's, for they are the simplest and neatest yet devised. Six of them are simply c, s, z, i, d, and u, with the tail of p added; the others are slight modifications of w, n, and r. He retains k rather than c for the final consonant in pack. He makes an odd slip in one place, in giving nation and vicious as words containing the sound of ch in church; he also marks the u in January like that in February. He says that "the terminations in certain, fountain, foreign, cottage, courage, language, etc., are regularly contracted to -in, -ij, and are so written in World-English," but we believe most persons pronounce these syllables more like -en and -ej. Prof. Bell uses no capitals in World-English, and marks the accent, when this is not on the first syllable, by a vertical line after the vowel of the accented syllable. In the case of a diphthong, he puts the mark between the two letters, which is somewhat confusing. The above objections refer only to details, and the scheme as a whole is much preferable to the mixture of Roman letters and "visible speech" symbols which Prof. Bell proposed in "Science" in 1883. The appearance of World-English, Volapük, and the various other plans for simplifying our mediums of communication, are signs that language is coming to be regarded as a tool that may be improved without disrespect to our grandfathers.

In an essay on Science in Secondary Schools, which received a prize of fifty dollars, recently offered by "The Academy," Charles R. Dryer, M. D., says that the best branch of science with which to break up the memorizing habit acquired by the pupil in the primary school, and introduce him to observation and induction, is physical geography. After this should come physics and chemistry combined, then biology, and last geology. In biology and geology, he advises proceeding from the known to the unknown, to study first what is nearest, rather than what is structurally the simplest. The spirit which he would have dominate science