Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (smart ebook reader .txt) 📕

One Flat,  Unless The Atmosphere In The Upper Portions Of The Lower Rooms

Be Shut Off From The Higher,  As It Should Be. Another Precaution Which

Might Be Taken With Advantage Is To Use The Higher Shelves For Cloth

Bindings.

"In The Harvard College Library No Gas Has Ever Been Used,  Nor Any Other

Artificial Illuminator To Much Extent. Neither Had Any Large Number Of

The Volumes Been Exposed To The Products Of Gas-Combustion,  Except For

A Brief Time Before They Were Placed Here. The Bindings In This Library

Showed Very Little Crumbling,  But Many Covers Were Breaking At The

Joints From The Shrinking Which Arises From Excessive Dryness. In common

With Many Other Substances,  Leather Yields Moisture To The Air Much More

Readily Than It Receives It From That Medium. Cloth Bindings Showed No

Decay At All Here--Very Little In any Of The Libraries,  Except In The

Loss Of Color. It Should Be Stated That The Volumes Which I Examined At

Harvard College Were Generally Older Than Those Inspected In The Other

Libraries. There Are Parchment Bindings In each Of The Libraries

Hundreds Of Years Old,  Apparently Just As Perfect In Texture As When

First Placed Upon The Shelves Of The Original Owner. The Parchment Was

Often Worn Through At The Angles,  But There Was No Breakage From

Shrinking,  The Material Having Been Shrunken As Much As Possible When

Prepared From The Skin. At Harvard College I Examined An Embossed Calf

Binding Stretched On Wooden Sides Which Was Above A Hundred Years Old.

It Was In almost Perfect Preservation,  And Not Much Shrunken. This

Volume,  Being Very Large,  Was On A Shelf Next The Ground Floor--A

Position Which It Had Probably Held Ever Since The Erection Of The

Building.

"Professor Nichols Does Not Mention Morocco In His Tables Of Analyses.

Indeed,  Morocco Was So Little Used For Bookbindings Until Within About

Thirty Years That It Affords A Less Ample Field For Investigation Than

Any Other Of The Leathers Now In common Use. My Attention Was Therefore

Directed Specially To This Material,  Of Which I Found Some Specimens

Having A Record Of Nearly Fifty Years. My Observation Was,  That In all

The Libraries These Were Less Affected By Decay,  In Proportion To Their

Age,  Than Other Leathers. In Harvard College Library The Best Turkey

Morocco,  With Forty Years Of Exposure,  Showed No Injury Except From

Chafing. The Outer Integument Was Often Worn Away,  Exposing The Texture

Of The Skin,  Which Was Still Of Strong Fibre. In The Athenaeum,  On The

Contrary,  Many Of The Moroccos Showed The Same Decay As The Calf,

Russia And Sheep. There Was,  However,  A Wide Difference In The Condition

Of Moroccos Of The Same Age--Some Showing As Much Decay As The Calf,

While Others Had Scarcely Any Of The Disintegration Common To The Older

Calf Bindings. The Same Might,  Indeed,  Be Said Of All Leathers,  Those

Tanned By The Quick Modern Methods,  With Much More Acid Than Is Used In

Old Processes,  In Which Time Is A Large Factor,  Showing Always A More

Rapid Deterioration. But,  The Methods Being The Same,  Morocco,  The

Oiliest Of The Common Leathers And The One Having The Firmest Cuticle,

Endures The Best.

"The Order Of Endurance Of Leather (As Observed By Librarians) Against

Atmospheric Effects Is As Follows,  Descending From The First To The Last

In Order: Parchment,  Light-Colored Morocco,  Sheep,  Russia,  Calf. Cloth

Wears Out Quickly By Use,  But Appears--The Linen Especially--To Be

Affected By The Atmosphere Only In Loss Of Color. These Observations All

Refer To The Ordinary Humidity Of The Air In Frequented Rooms.

"This,  Then,  Is The Result Of My Inquiries: I Found The Shrinking And

Breaking Resulting From Heat Much The Same In all The Libraries,  But

Most In That Where The Heating Is From The Outer Air Brought In Over

Hot-Water Pipes,  The Two Other Libraries Examined Being Warmed By

Steam-Pipes Having A Higher Temperature. I Found The Mealy Structure--Or

Instead Thereof Flakiness--To Prevail Most In The Athenaeum,  Next In The

Public Library: In The Latter,  However,  Many Volumes Have Been Rebound,

Thus Raising The Average Of Condition. In The Harvard College Library No

Gas--In Fact,  Little If Any Artificial Light--Is Used,  And Here,  Too,

The Mealy Structure And Disintegration Are Mostly Absent. I Conclude,

Therefore,  From These Limited Observations,  That Heat Is Responsible For

A Large Part Of The Damage To Leather Bindings,  Its Effects Being

Evidently Supplemented And Hastened By Gas-Combustion.

"The Ventilating Lamps Before Described,  Though Rather Cumbrous To Eyes

Accustomed To The Small And Simple Apparatus Commonly Used,  Might Prove

Valuable In Rooms Containing Fabrics Liable; To Be Injured By The Gases

From Open Burners."

As The Chemist Concluded His Reading The Traveller Remarked To The

Somewhat Weary Listeners,  "You Now See The Vast Amount Of Study And Care

Required To Use Gas With Economy And Safety. I Could Not Have Argued The

Cause Of A New,  Clean,  Gasless And Vaporless Light Like Electricity Any

Better Myself."

"At Any Rate," Said The Old Gentleman,  "Gas Stock Won'T Go Lower For

Twenty Years Than It Has Been This Winter."

"You Are All Wedded To Your Idols," Was The Final Protest Of The

Traveller.

"I Wish I Was," Murmured The Young Fellow,  With A Side-Glance At His

Fair Neighbor,  Who Immediately Removed To Another Part Of The Room.

George J. Varney.

The "_???? ??G?????_ In Shakespeare.

When We Examine The Vocabulary Of Shakespeare,  What First Strikes Us Is

Its Copiousness. His Characters Are Countless,  And Each One Speaks His

Own Dialect. His Little Fishes Never Talk Like Whales,  Nor Do His Whales

Talk Like Little Fishes. Those Curious In Such Matters Have Detected In

His Works Quotations From Seven Foreign Tongues,  And Those From Latin

Alone Amount To One Hundred And Thirty-Two.

Our First Impression,  That The Shakespearian Variety Of Words Is

Multitudinous,  Is Confirmed By Statistics. Mrs. Cowden Clarke Has

Counted Those Words One By One,  And Ascertained Their Sum To Be Not Less

Than Fifteen Thousand. The Total Vocabulary Of Milton'S Poetical Remains

Is No More Than Eight Thousand,  And That Of Homer,  Including The _Hymns_

As Well As Both _Iliad_ And _Odyssey_,  Is About Nine Thousand. In The

English Bible The Different Words Are Reckoned By Mr. G.P. Marsh In His

Lectures On The English Language At Rather Fewer Than Six Thousand.

Those In The Greek Testament I Have Learned By Actual Count To Be Not

Far From Five Thousand Five Hundred.

Some German Writers On Greek Grammar Maintain That They Could Teach

Plato And Demosthenes Useful Lessons Concerning Greek Moods And Tenses,

Even As The Ancient Athenians,  According To The Fable Of Phaedrus,

Contended That They Understood Squealing Better Than A Pig. However This

May Be,  Any One Of Us To-Day,  Thanks To The Concordance Of Mrs. Clarke

And The Lexicon Of Alexander Schmidt,  May Know Much In Regard To

Shakespeare'S Use Of Language Which Shakespeare Himself Cannot Have

Known. One Particular As To Which He Must Have Been Ignorant,  While We

May Have Knowledge,  Is Concerning His Employment Of Terms Denominated

_Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_.

The Phrase _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_--Literally,  _Once Spoken_--May Be Traced

Back,  I Think,  To The Alexandrian Grammarians,  Centuries Before Our Era,

Who Invented It To Describe Those Words Which They Observed To Occur

Once,  And _Only Once_,  In any Author Or Literature. It Is So Convenient

An Expression For Statistical Commentators On The Bible,  And On The

Classics As Well,  That They Will Not Willingly Let It Die.

The List Of _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_--That Is,  Words Used Once And _Only

Once_--In Shakespeare Is Surprisingly Long. It Embraces A Greater

Multitude Than Any Man Can Easily Number. Nevertheless,  I Have Counted

Those Beginning With Two Letters. The Result Is That The Apa? ?E?? Mue?A

With Initial _A_ Are 364,  And Those With Initial _M_ Are 310. There Is

No Reason,  That I Know Of,  To Suppose The Census With These Initials To

Be Proportionally Larger Than That With Other Letters. If It Is Not,

Then The Words Occurring Only Once In all Shakespeare Cannot Be Less

Than Five Thousand,  And They Are Probably A Still Greater Legion.

The Number I Have Culled From One Hundred And Forty-Six Pages Of Schmidt

Is 674. At This Rate The Total On The Fourteen Hundred And Nine Pages Of

The Entire Lexicon Would Foot Up 6504. It Is Possible,  Then,  That

Shakespeare Discarded,  After Once Trying Them,  More Different Words Than

Fill And Enrich The Whole English Bible. The Old Grammarians Tell Us

That A Certain Part Of Speech Was Called _Supine_,  Because It Was Very

Seldom Needed,  And Therefore Almost Always Lying _On Its Back_--I.E.

In Latin,  _Supinus_. The Supines Of Shakespeare Outnumber The Employes

Of Most Authors.

The Array Of Shakespearian _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_ Appears Still Vaster If We

Compare It With Expressions Of The Same Nature In The Scriptures And In

Homer. In The English Bible Words With The Initials _A_ And _M_ Used

Once Only Are 132 To 674 With The Same Initials In Shakespeare. The

Scriptural _Once-Onlys_ Would Be More Than Twice As Many As We Find Them

Were They As Frequent In Proportion To Their Total Vocabulary As His

Are.

The Homeric _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_ With Initial _M_ Are 78,  But Were They As

Numerous In Proportion To Homer'S Whole World Of Words As Shakespeare'S

Are,  They Would Run Up To 186; That Is,  To More Than Twice As Many As

Their Actual Number.

In The Greek New Testament I Have Enumerated 63 _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_

Beginning With The Letter _M_--A Larger Number Than You Would Expect,

For It Is As Large As That In both English Testaments Beginning With

That Same Letter,  Which Is Also Exactly 63. It Indicates A Wider Range

Of Expression In The Authors Of The Greek Original Than In Their English

Translators.

The 310 Shakespearian Words With Initial _M_ Used _Once Only_ I Have

Also Compared With The Whole Verbal Inventory Of Our Language So Far As

It Begins With That Letter. They Make Up One-Fifth Almost Of That

Entire Stock,  Which Musters In Webster Only 1641 Words. You Will At Once

Inquire,  "What Is The _Nature_ Of These Rejected Shakespearian Vocables,

Which He Seems To Have Viewed As Milk That Would Bear No More Than One

Skimming?"

The Percentage Of _Classical_ Words Among Them Is Great--Greater Indeed

Than In The Body Of Shakespeare'S Writings. According To The Analysis Of

Weisse,  In an Average Hundred Of Shakespearian Words One-Third