Page 309 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

308 THIRD BOOK OF
an equal, or perhaps a superior degree of dignity. If, while we dissect with care the larger animals, we are lled with wonder at the elegant disposition of their parts, to what a height is our astonishment raised, when we discover all these parts arranged in the least, in the same regular manner ! Notwith­ standing the smallness of ants, nothing hinders our
preferring them to the largest animals, if we consider either their unwearied diligence, their wonder l strength, or their inimitable propensity to labour. Their amazing love r their young is still more un­ paralleled among the larger classes. They not only daily carry them to such places as may a ord them
od ; but if hy accident they are killed, and were cut into pieces, they will with the utmost tenderness carry them away piecemeal in their arms. ho can how such an example among the larger animals, which are digni ed with the title of per ct? ho can nd an instance in any other portion of the brute creation that can come in competition with this?"
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNIC .
LESSON XVI.
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
LANGUAGE (lang'-), n., that which the tongue utters or speaks; speech, oral or written. F. langa,ge, om lingua, L., a tongue, om lingo, . I lick.
PRIM1ITIVE, a., early, original. F. primit{ om primits, L., rst. Fon1EIGN, a., out or far away om ; alien. F. forain, om fords, L.,
rth, out of doors.
0R'IGIN, n., rise, source, derivation, or descent. F. and I. or ine, from orior, L., I rise, I spring.
lNTERIIx1, v., to mingle or blend one with another. L. intermisceo,­ intcr, and misceo, I mix, mingle, or blend.
D11ALECT, n., the subdivision of a language: the term is also applied