Part 1
THE PENNY MAGAZINE
OF THE
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
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23.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [August 11, 1832
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THE OLIVE.
[Illustration: The Olive Tree.]
There is something peculiarly mild and graceful in the appearance of the olive-tree, even apart from its associations. The leaves bear some resemblance to those of the willow, only they are more soft and delicate. The flowers are as delicate as the leaves; they come in little spikes from buds between the leaf-stalks and the spikes. At first they are of a pale yellow; but when they expand their four petals, the insides of them are white, and only the centre of the flower yellow.
The wild olive is found indigenous in Syria, Greece, and Africa, on the lower slopes of the Atlas. The cultivated one grows spontaneously in many parts of Syria; and is easily reared in all parts of the shores of the Levant that are not apt to be visited by frosty winds. Where olives abound they give much beauty to the landscape. The beautiful plain of Athens, as seen toward the north-west from Mount Hymettus, appears entirely covered with olive-trees. Tuscany, the south of France, and the plains of Spain, are the places of Europe in which the olive was first cultivated. The Tuscans were the first who exported olive-oil largely, and thus it has obtained the name of Florence-oil; but the purest is said to be obtained from about Aix, in France.
The proper time for gathering olives for the press is the eve of maturity. If delayed too long, the next crop is prevented, and the tree is productive only in the alternate years. At Aix, where the olive harvest takes place early in November, it is annual: in Languedoc, Spain, and Italy, where it is delayed till December or January, it is in alternate years. The quality of the oil, also, depends upon the gathering of the fruit in the first stage of its maturity. It should be carefully plucked by the hand; and the whole harvest completed, if possible, in a day. The oil-mill is simple. The fruit is reduced to a pulp, put into sacks of coarse linen, or feather-grass, and subjected to pressure. The growth of olives and the manufacture of the oil afford a considerable employment to many of the inhabitants of France and Italy. The importation of olive-oil into Great Britain amounted, in 1827, to about four thousand five hundred tons, paying a duty of eight guineas per tun.
In ancient times, especially, the olive was a tree held in the greatest veneration; for then the oil was employed in pouring out libations to the gods, while the branches formed the wreaths of the victors at the Olympic Games. The Greeks had a pretty and instructive fable in their mythology, on the origin of the olive. They said that Neptune having a dispute with Minerva, as to the name of the city of Athens, it was decided by the gods that the deity who gave the best present to mankind should have the privilege in dispute. Neptune struck the shore, out of which sprung a horse: but Minerva produced an olive-tree. The goddess had the triumph; for it was adjudged that Peace, of which the olive is the symbol, was infinitely better than War, to which the horse was considered as belonging, and typifying. Even in the sacred history, the olive is invested with more honour than any other tree. The patriarch Noah had sent out a dove from the ark, but she returned without any token of hope. Then “He stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive-branch plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.”
The veneration for the olive, and also the great duration of the tree, appears from the history of one in the Acropolis at Athens. Dr. Clarke has this passage in his Travels, in speaking of the temple of Pandrosus--“Within this building, so late as the second century, was preserved the _olive-tree_ mentioned by Apollodorus, which was said to be as old as the foundation of the citadel. Stuart supposed it to have stood in the portico of the temple of Pandrosus (called by him the Pandroseum) from the circumstance of the air necessary for its support, which could here be admitted between the caryatides; but instances of trees, that have been preserved to a very great age, within the interior of an edifice inclosed by walls, may be adduced.”
[Illustration: The Olive.]
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MATERNAL EDUCATION.
The responsibility which is incurred by every mother imperatively calls upon her to seek the best means of making her children good and rational beings. This is not to be done by merely sending them to school for instruction. Education must be continued at home, or otherwise its most important results are left to chance, and it mainly depends upon accident or circumstance whether the child becomes vicious or virtuous. All persons may not have the power or the opportunity to direct the infant mind with sufficient steadiness and judgment to produce certain effects. It is much more within the ability of a mother to make her children good-tempered, and to endow them with cheerful, contented dispositions; but even in this, with the best intentions, she may fail from want of understanding the means. It is, however, in the power of all mothers--the learned and the unlearned, the rich and the poor--to have the most _decided_ influence on the _moral_ character of their children, and to make them virtuous members of society. To this end children must be educated by example as well as by precept. Let not parents believe that they are discharging their duty by admonishing their children to do right, while they act at variance with those principles they would inculcate. Children are peculiarly quick-sighted in this respect, and detect the smallest contradiction in act and word with surprising acuteness. That which we wish our children to become, that we should endeavour as much as possible to be ourselves. This is a maxim in parental management which would tend more than any other course to ensure success.
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MEANINGS OF WORDS.--No. 3.
Grammarians have divided words into various classes, called parts of speech, an arrangement that has some advantages, and also some inconveniences. The advantages are the same that we derive from classification in all sciences, where we have a great number of objects which we wish to have some ready means of referring to: the disadvantages are, that the _names_ of the parts of speech have often been an obstacle to our right understanding of the true nature and meaning of the words themselves. For our present purpose it will be enough to speak of _nouns_, _adjectives_, and _verbs_; or, if our readers prefer it, we will use the term _noun_ as including that of _adjective_.
A _noun_, as the word imports, is a _name_ for something, whether it be a thing immediately open to the examination of the senses, or an object which we contemplate only by the mind. We propose to distribute some of these nouns into classes, in order that by a comparison their meanings may be better understood.
Nouns in _er_.
Work-er. Hunt-er. Kill-er. Speak-er. Slay-er. Carri-er.
The meaning of this termination in _er_ is obvious: it expresses the _do-er_ of a thing. These words in _er_ may be considered as formed by adding the termination _er_ to such words as _work_, _kill_, _carry_, &c. In the last instance it will be observed that the _y_ is changed into an _i_ in the new word.
There are some words in _er_[1] which do not signify a _do-er_, such as _murder_, _slaughter_, _laughter_. But we have the word _murder-er_, and we might have such a word as _slaughter-er_: the word _laugh-er_ is formed regularly from the word _laugh_.
This termination _er_ is found in the German language in the same sense; and also in the Latin and Greek, where the termination _or_, with the same signification, is also of frequent occurrence.
Nouns in _or_.
Act-or. Prosecut-or. Doct-or. Orat-or. Visit-or. Curat-or.
We believe these words in _or_ are all derived from the Latin, while the words in _er_ are genuine Saxon. _Visit-or_, and other words of the class, are sometimes written _visit-er_; but it would perhaps be a good rule to confine all the terminations in _or_ to words really derived from Latin; for it may be laid down as a general rule that the nouns in _or_, as the reader will see them in our common books, are of Latin origin, while those in _er_ are of genuine Saxon growth.
Female nouns in _ess_ and _ix_.
Some nouns in _or_ and _er_ have special terminations to denote the female _doer_, thus, _hunt-ress_, _murder-ess_.
The second example shows that these words are simply made by putting _ess_ to the end of the word in _er_; and that in _hunt-ress_ the vowel _e_ has been dropped, the word having been originally _hunteress_. Some words in _ess_ change the termination of the masculine a little, as _abbot_, _abbess_. This termination _ess_ is found in the Greek language with the same signification.
We have also feminine nouns in _ix_, formed from the Latin, such as _executrix, prosecutrix_: in _ine_, such as _hero_, _hero-ine_.
Nouns in _ship_, (German, _schaft_)
Lord,ship. Wor,ship. Fellow,ship. Friend,ship.
These words in _ship_ have the final syllable derived from the verb to _shape_, which is to _make_, that is, to give a _form_ to a thing. Now the word _Lord_ is an old Saxon word somewhat changed, and means loaf-giving, (hlaf-ord); hence _lord-ship_ would mean originally “the doing that which becomes a lord.” _Friend-ship_ now means the _state of being friends_; originally, the _making of friends_. The word _worship_ is used both as a noun and a verb, and it means _worth-ship_, “doing that which is good.” Hence we say “your _wor-ship_” when we speak to magistrates, or persons in authority.
Words in _dom_, (German, _thum_).
King-dom. Christen-dom. Duke-dom. Wis-dom, (wise-dom).
The meaning of these words is clear from the use which we daily make of them. They imply a notion of a collection of things belonging to a person: thus, a _kingdom_ originally meant the “_possessions of a king_,” his “people and lands.” _Wis-dom_ is the “possession of a wise man;” and we do not know of any better.
Words in _ness_.
Dark-ness. Like-ness. Bright-ness. Great-ness.
This termination is very common in the German language, where it is found in the form _niss_. It expresses in the words just given the qualities of _dark_, _bright_, &c.
Words in _y_, (_ei_ in German).
These words differ somewhat in their meanings.
Slave, slavery. Rob, robber, robber,y.
In these instances the word in _y_ denotes a _condition_, as, “he is in slavery;” or a profession, as, “he lives by robber-y, or villain-y, or treacher-y, or knaver-y;” all of them very bad occupations. The word ‘robbery’ is now often used to express a single act committed, as, “there was a great robbery committed lately.” It may also be observed, that in all the instances above given, except villainy, the syllable _er_ is placed between the first and last part of the word. From such instances as ‘rob,’ ‘rob(b)-er,’ ‘robber-y,’ we might infer that many words in _y_ are formed from nouns in _er_, which themselves are formed from simple verbs. Thus, from the word ‘slave,’ the word ‘slaver,’ meaning a ship engaged in the slave-trade, has sometimes been used. Many of these words in _y_ denote a place where something is kept, or a place where animals are collected, or a place where something is made, as--
Pigger-y. Brewer-y. Granar-y. Nunner-y. Factor-y. Nurser-y.
Some of them signify an art, in which sense they are akin to the first examples that we gave, though of a more respectable class.
Gunner-y. Archer-y. Carpentr-y
This termination _y_ does not appear to belong to the Saxon part of our language. It is found both in Greek and Latin, and very often in the former language in significations the same as it now has in our own tongue. Such words as
Piety, Vanity, Humanity,
are derived from Latin words which end in _tas_, as _pietas_, &c.
[To be Continued.]
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Footnote 1:
In German, _mord_ is the same as our _murder_; and _moerder_ the same as our _murderer_. Thus the German has preserved more consistency in the formation of this word.
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THE GIRAFFE.
[From a Correspondent.]
The interesting animal you alluded to in your Magazine of 30th June, and which made so unfortunate a journey to England, was an old acquaintance of mine. I happened to be at Malta when it arrived in that island from Egypt. The Governor, Sir F. Ponsonby, provided it with a very pleasant and appropriate lodging in the grounds of the villa of Sant’ Antonio, where I saw it several times with its two African keepers, who had attended it so far. The sultry, dry climate of Malta seemed to agree very well with it. There were no trees on that arid rock tall enough to require the length of his neck--the tallest at Sant’ Antonio were not much higher than its legs, and it was exceedingly pretty to see with what grace the creature bent its long, elastic neck, and brought its small, deer-like head, to play with their topmost branches. It only played with them. The Africans fed him regularly with some sort of dry provender, and when they appeared he was accustomed to show considerable animation; but I never saw it so forgetful of its dignity as to run--on the contrary, it walked up to them with very stately steps. Its eye then was particularly bright and beautiful, and the whole appearance of the animal was indeed very different from what I have heard described after its arrival in England.
The day it was embarked it did not look so well as usual. It was put on board a large, new merchant brig only lately built at Malta. When it was in the hold, with its feet almost on the brig’s keel, it could stretch its neck out of the main hatch-way, and command all the deck with its head. It seemed greatly astonished, but remained as tranquil as possible. I never heard it make the least noise. When the sailors went near it, it drew in its head, but seemed to protrude it with pleasure when its old companions and countrymen, the Africans, approached it.
At Constantinople, on one side of the Hippodrome, there is a menagerie, now very ill provided,--dark, filthy, and much neglected. Some years ago a giraffe was sent from Egypt to enrich the collection of beasts then existing there. Its keeper was accustomed to take it to exercise in the large open square of the Hippodrome, where the Turks used to flock daily in great crowds, to cultivate the acquaintance of the extraordinary quadruped. Seeing how perfectly inoffensive it was, and how domesticated it became, the keeper next used to take it with him on his walks through the city, and wherever the general favourite appeared, a number of friendly hands were held out of the _gazebos_, or projecting latticed windows, to offer it something to eat. The Turkish women were particularly attentive to it. The generality of the streets at Constantinople are so narrow, that, as it walked along the middle, its neck being inflected to the right or to the left, it could almost touch the houses. After some time, when it came to a house where it had been particularly well treated, if no one was at the window, it would gently tap against the wooden lattice, as though to announce its visit. It was extremely docile and easily directed, but if left to itself, it was observed invariably to take the street in which it had the most or the best friends. This pet of the Turkish capital died a long time before my arrival, but an old servant I had, told me the anecdote.
The old traveller, Marco Polo, says he was told of the existence of camelopards, or giraffes, in the island of Madagascar on the coast of Africa, and in Abyssinia. It does not appear that he saw any specimen, but he describes its principal features very accurately. C. M
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THE SHEPHERD BOY.
The rain was pattering o’er the low thatch’d shed That gave us shelter. There was a shepherd boy Stretching his lazy limbs on the rough straw In vacant happiness. A tatter’d sack Cover’d his sturdy loins, while his rude legs Were deck’d with uncouth patches of all hues, Iris and jet, through which his sun-burnt skin Peep’d forth in dainty contrast. He was a glory For painter’s eye; and his quaint draperies Would harmonize with some fair sylvan scene, Where arching groves, and flower-embroider’d banks, Verdant with thymy grass, tempted the sheep To scramble up their height, while he, reclin’d Upon the pillowing moss, lay listlessly Through the long summer’s day. Not such as he In plains of Thessaly, as poets feign, Went piping forth at the first gleam of morn, And in their bowering thickets dreamt of joy, And innocence, and love. Let the true lay Speak thus of the poor hind:--his indolent gaze Reck’d not of natural beauties; his delights Were gross and sensual: not the glorious sun, Rising above his hills, and lighting up His woods and pastures with a joyous beam, To him was grandeur; not the reposing sound Of tinkling flocks cropping the tender shoots To him was music; not the blossomy breeze That slumbers in the honey-dropping bean-flower To him was fragrance: he went plodding on His long-accustomed path; and when his cares Of daily duties were o’erpass’d, he ate, And laugh’d, and slept, with a most drowsy mind. Dweller in cities, scorn’st thou the shepherd boy, Who never look’d within to find the eye For Nature’s glories? Oh, his slumbering spirit Struggled to pierce the fogs and deepening mists Of rustic ignorance; but he was bound With a harsh galling chain, and so he went Grovelling along his dim instinctive way. Yet _thou_ hadst other hopes and other thoughts, But the world spoil’d thee: then the mutable clouds, And doming skies, and glory-shedding sun, And tranquil stars that hung above thy head Like angels gazing on thy crowded path, To thee were worthless, and thy soul forsook The love of beauteous fields, and the blest lore That man may read in Nature’s book of truth. Despise not, then, the lazy shepherd boy, For his account and thine shall be made up, And evil cherish’d and occasion lost May cast their load upon thee, while his spirit May bud and bloom in a more sunny sphere.
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Two things are required on the part of the working classes to adjust themselves to the state of society as one altering and improving:--skill, or practical knowledge, so that when one branch of productive labour fails from improvement or fluctuation, they may resort to another; and economy, that they may provide against “a rainy day,” and instead of seeking relief in combination and outrage, have the means of support until the arrival of more favourable times. These qualities will appear only where there has been some training of the head and the heart. Let then the mind be taught to think and the judgment be fitted for correct decision, and the difference will be manifest, as it is now in cases occasionally witnessed; the intelligent will not be the dupes of demagogues or incendiaries, and the thrifty will discover a higher tone of feeling than their improvident neighbours.--_Wilderspin’s Early Discipline._
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HOLYROOD HOUSE, EDINBURGH.
The west part of Edinburgh is built along the ridge of a somewhat steep hill, stretching for about a mile from east to west. At the western extremity of the street, which, under various names, extends in a continuous line along this summit, stands the castle, crowning a lofty and precipitous rock; at its opposite end, which lies low, is the palace of Holyrood House, there commonly designated the Abbey. Holyrood House, in fact, was a religious establishment long before it became a royal residence. It was one of the numerous monasteries founded by the Scottish King David I., a monarch who was made a saint for his pious profusion. The name of Holyrood was derived from a celebrated silver rood (or cross) said to have been actually put into the hands of the founder by an angel, as he was hunting one day on the spot where the abbey was afterwards erected. This cross was accordingly regarded with great veneration and pride by the Scots for more than two centuries; but David II. having thought proper to carry it along with him, in 1347, in his foolish invasion of England, it fell a prey to the victors at the disastrous battle of Neville’s Cross, in which the King himself was severely wounded and taken prisoner, and, according to some accounts, twenty thousand of his troops left dead on the field. The Holy Rood was long after this preserved with great care in the cathedral of Durham, and continued to be the object of nearly as reverential a regard among its new as it had been among its original possessors. Holyrood House was most liberally endowed with lands and privileges both by its founder and by several of his successors; so that it eventually became the richest ecclesiastical establishment in Scotland. This abbey was repeatedly both plundered and burned in the course of the wars with the English. In 1544, especially, when Leith and Edinburgh were taken and sacked by the Earl of Hertford (afterwards the Protector Somerset) the whole of the church was burned to the ground, with the exception of the nave, which was subsequently used as a chapel.
[Illustration: Interior of Holyrood Chapel.]
The earliest notice we have of the existence of a palace at Holyrood is no older than the beginning of the sixteenth century. The more ancient palaces of the Scottish kings were all to the north of the Forth, the country to the south of that river not having properly formed part of their dominions till a comparatively recent era. It is probable, however, that they may have had a residence at Holyrood before the year 1503, when we first find the _palace_ expressly mentioned. After this, in 1528, James V. made great additions to the buildings already existing, or rather indeed rebuilt the whole from the foundation. A great part of this erection was burnt by the English in 1544; but the devastation committed on this occasion was soon after repaired; and a new palace built on a much more extensive scale than before. It was probably, indeed, a considerably larger building than the present, inasmuch as it is stated to have consisted of five courts, or quadrangles. Here the unfortunate Mary had her principal residence during the time she enjoyed her regal dignity; and here also her son James VI. held his court, till his accession to the crown of England. A considerable part of this building was afterwards burned down by Cromwell’s soldiers, and it lay in ruins till about the year 1670, when, by direction of Charles II. the present structure was commenced after a design of Sir William Bruce.
[Illustration: Western Front of Holyrood Palace.]