short u, though more prolonged. One not accustomed to German, would come very near to the true pronunciation of ö in Goethe, if he should pronounce it as though it were spelled Gurty, leaving out the sound of r. The difficulty is in prolonging the sound sufficiently to give it the true German effect. With us the sound is always, or generally, short. We give it greater length in hurt and worth than we do in put and but. Accustoming ourselves to uttering the long sound without pronouncing the r, we could soon very nearly acquire the German ö. December, 1880. ER, BY, NEAH. Er and Ere is the Saxon termination from wer, were, a man, equivalent to the German pronoun er, he. As a termination, it signifies an agent, or actor. Thus, bake, baker; dig, digger; sing, singer; train, trainer, etc., meaning respectively a man who bakes, digs, sings, trains, etc., as much as to say, bake-man, digman, sing-man, train-man, etc. We naturally and almost unconsciously add this termination when we wish to express the actor who does anything; thus, we naturally say dynamiter, photographer, when we wish to denote a person who uses the new substance dynamite, or who performs the new process of photographing. By, Bye, is the Danish for town, village, etc. Hence in that part of England where the Danes settled, we find plenty of towns ending with that termination, as Wetherby, Thirkleby, Selby; in Yorkshire, Derby, Denby; in Derbyshire, and perhaps a hundred places in Lincolnshire, the local map being filled with them. It may come from Bya, Byan, to inhabit, or from Bi, near, in the vicinity of. For, as the people lived in towns, or vills, those who were collected together, Bi each other, always made a vill. Neah, Anglo-Saxon for near. Neah-bi-er would be the near-by-man, hence, our word, “neighbor." FREEDOM OF THOUGHT. In scientific and historical, especially archæological investigations, the mind should be free from all bias and open to the reception of truth and the exact result of the evidence presented, no matter what idols are overthrown by it. "Bacon," in his Novum Organum (B. L. XXXIX-XLIV), says there are four species of idols which beset the human mind-Idols of the tribe, Idols of the Den, Idols of the Market and Idols of the Theatre. 1. Idols of the Tribe are inherent in human nature, and the very tribe or race of man-the tendency to look at all things from the central stand point of self and the senses. 2. Idols of the Den are the peculiar mental obliquities of the individual, arising from his disposition, education and circumstances. 3. Idols of the Market are those erroneous impressions derived from intercourse with other men, from the loose conceptions attached to words and common speech. 4. Idols of the Theatre are the dogmas and theories of sects and parties in religion and philosophy which attract us, or fetter the operations of our minds. The influence of these Idols constantly operates to cloud the understanding and to shut out the rays of truth. If the remains of a human being are found in a geological stratum, or locality which indicates the lapse of many ages since that being lived, and if those remains show a low type, pointing to a great intermediate development of the race, the whole religious world, frightened at the bearing the discovery may have on the accuracy of the book of Genesis, bears down upon the obvious deductions of the evidence, with indiscriminate and blind denunciation. But the man of true scientific instincts will regard this commotion with contempt, and will give full play to his reason, and accept the teachings which the dicovery suggest. He will not shut his eyes to the evident facts, but will regard them with fairness and candor, as if the book of Genesis had never been written. This freedom of thought is repulsive to ninety-nine hundredths of men, because it sets at naught their cherished opinions, prejudices or dogmas. Freedom of thought was the great object for which Spinoza contended, and many other great men. |