tance. With a large surplus revenue in its coffers it is prosecuting public works that will soon bring it into closer contact with the outer civilized world. The first section of the railway from Delagoa Bay is completed, and though British interests have brought a force of influences towards obstructing it, the tide of circumstances is too powerful in its favor, and it will draw the bulk of the trade from the republics. All religious denominations have free scope in the Transvaal, and educational advantages will enter into all the lives of the Boers of the rising generation. Government schools are established in all the towns; the Volksraad recently voted £20,000 for the purpose of erecting a college; 100 a year is granted by Government to any English private school in which Dutch is included in the curriculum, and this interchange of language is making its influence felt towards removing the intolerance and prejudice with which English and Boers regard one another. Looking back a few years at the Boers, living in their isolated and pastoral simplicity, cut off from all advantages of education and civilization, it seems almost impossible to realize the rapidity with which changes come about, and that a few years more will rank them in the confraternity of nations. In this lies the fruition. of the hope which animated the early pioneers of 1688, whose spirit has filtered through the successive generations, leading them to endure untold suffering in preference to the sacrifice of their inborn independence. The reflection is not without a lesson, and it embodies the principle of a great purpose being the ultimate destiny of humanity.

Mr. Kruger is serving his second term of office as

president since the restoration of the Transvaal to the Boers. He is pure and simple a son of the soil, his parents being of the pioneers who abandoned the Cape Colony in 1835. He is a man of few educational advantages, as we understand them, but circumstances have bred in him a strong capacity for government. He has been compared in character to the old Scotch Covenanters who went about with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other. He is a man of severely religious principles and is one of a sect called Doppers, a strict body of Dutch Protestants, peculiar in dress, manners and way of living; they correspond to the Puritans. Among the Boers, whose entire confidence he possesses, Mr. Kruger is known as" Oom Paul," Uncle Paul. At the time of the British occupation of the Transvaal he made two journeys to England to induce that government to undo the act of annexation, and he was the central figure in the Boer war and in the conduct of the peace negotiations.

He is regarded by outsiders as a man of strict integrity and strong common sense, and he has shown peculiar ability by the way he has adapted his rule to newer conditions; he has suddenly been called upon to regulate the affairs of an alien population of adverse sympathies and ambitions, 50,000 English who have flocked into the Transvaal owing to the recent discoveries of gold. He has displayed a peculiar tact in identifying his government with their interests, but he shows a firm disposition to resist the spirit that worked to the overthrow of his predecessor, President Burgers, though at times it does not leave him without anxiety.

The native tribes of South Africa are numerous.

Their government is chiefly of the patriarchal order. The stringency of their laws is a necessity, death is the punishment for infringement of these-for which their state can provide no prisons.

The morality of natives and the peaceful relations of domestic life find no parallel in civilization. Some of their customs are analogous to the Jewish, and coming to a later date others are not unlike what were common among the ancient Highland clans, and their superstitions, beliefs and practices in witchcraft are like those current in England in the time of James I.

The savagery of the natives is served up to excite our horror, and yet the refined cruelties of civilization would seek in vain for a counterpart amongst them. Human nature is the same in every condition and the brutal element is no less apparent in the state called civilization as contrasted with barbarism. The general disposition of the natives is peaceable. A simple diet and constant out-door life give them a vigor of frame and an exuberance of animal spirit that constitutes a great measure of happiness. Their reputed savagery consists to a great extent of the defense of their rights, which in the presence of Europeans they dread are assailed.

Their future opens a wide field for genuine philanthropy, and the first inception of civilization should be based on an industrial system. The less of the shadowy and vague they are taught the better, its tendency is to demoralize them, for like children, and men too, they are more susceptible to example than precept.

DEFINITIONS OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR CORRECT PRONUNCIATION, FOR THE VARIOUS HIGHER SCHOOLS.

-= vowel long; '=vowel short, but accented; *= vowel not accented.

GREEK ALPHABET.-LATIN CHARACTERS,

αβγδεζηθικλμνξο

πρσς τυχέι

a b g d é z ẽ th i k 1 m n x ó p r S-S ty phch ps3

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ ΙΚ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω ABG DEZE ThI K L M NXO P R S T Y Ph Ch Ps O

The Latin vowels a, e, i, o and u have always the sound as given above (long or short).

X

ou in house; ɛ', eu oy

7, g, I, G sounds like g in girl; 90th in thin; 5, x, E, x in axe; 4, 0=ph in phenomenon ;ph in phenomenon ;-7, X, ch, Ch has

not a corresponding sound in English; it sounds as a strongly aspirated h ch.

The Greek T

sound;

'Αγιος (holy), νῆσος (island), μέγας (great); τρία (three) ζώνη (girdle), nóvτos (sea); — ßoù; (ox), ñúŋ (gate).

Σφαίρα (sphere), ἤπειρος (continent ; ναός (ship), εὔξεινος (hospitable).

(earth), depós (warm), aïs (goat), xeçaìý (head); — yaizó (copper, metal).

Στρογγύλος (round), άγκων (elbow).

Geographical names are easily impressed on the memory, if their meaning is known; not all of them, but a great many, can be explained.

The word geography is derived from the Greek language; the Greek meaning the earth, and rpage= to describe; hence GEOGRAPHY DESCRIPTION OF THE

EARTH.

The Greek çapa (Latin sphaera) means a ball, σφαίρα sphere, and half. From these we have the word HEMISPHERE for HALF THE GLOBE and we speak of the