our tongue-tied condition. From the same
cause arose frequent misinterpretation as to
the amount of confidence to be reposed in
strangers, and the loss of a great store of
useful information, that might have been
obtained had we known how to converse
freely with prisoners. But while we were
ourselves thus ignorant, we had plenty of
occasion for remarking the proficiency in
language shown amongst the Russians.
Their officers were seldom unable to speak
fluently both French and English, and they
had been taught also to speak in other
tongues, of which we scarcely knew the
name.

In the time of our own need Sir Charles
Trevelyan invoked the aid of Professor Max
Müller, a philosophical linguist of high
reputation, and elicited from him a response of
considerable interest, which indeed came too
late to be of much use in the war, which
came to an end before any pupil could have
had time to make much progress in Illyrian
or Baskir. It has not, however, come too
late to direct attention to a fault in the whole
scheme of English education. We propose to
train the mind, to think and strengthen it by
a course of instruction from which very
commonly nearly all thought on the pupil's
part is banished, and neglect as less robust
those subjects of education which provoke
thought most strongly, and have also the
most direct and obvious bearing upon after
life. A wise teaching of the life that is in
language surely begets more reflection even
than that which is said to be the special
study for those who would learn to reason-
Euclid. Surely we hear too much about the
education of the reasoning powers by a science
that excludes all human interest from
calculation, and every accident that could bring
judgment and discretion into play. Must,
will no doubt teach a good lesson, but if the
question is of learning to deliberate, commend
us rather to might, could, would, should. We
are quite sure that living languages are
better means of teaching boys or men to
think than even mathematics. Let there be
no lack of mathematical teaching, only let it
not occupy a wrong place in the theory of
education. It is the groundwork of exact
science; by help of it the pupil rises to a
nobler view of all the glories of creation
which we would have all, whom it is
professed liberally to educate, taught to study;
but of the reasoning that belongs to the affairs
of human life, about which it is practically
most important that we should be taught to
reflect wisely, it supplies little or nothing.
The mere study of words is in this respect
more to be valued.

For example, let us take the common
military terms, as we have been talking of
the scene of war, and see how much thought
is suggested by them: We have been fighting
on behalf of pagans. The word pagan meant
originally only peasant, and was taken to

mean heathens during times when the great
cities of the Roman empire had adopted
Christianity, and the poor uninstructed
villagers clung to their ancient faith.
Companions in arms are only co-pagans, the word
companion having originally meant inhabitant
of the same village.

Infantry in arms in the field derives its
name from the infant in arms in the nursery,
Infant means unable to speak, and this idea
of childhood was communicated to a boy or
servant to whom Don't answer me, sir, has
been a very ancient form of admonition,
This boy grew into the foot-soldier of the
middle ages, who went out to battle as the
servant of the knight on horseback. The
pioneer who marched before to clear the way
meant only a man on foot, and is but another
form of the word footpad.

Caballus, a cart-horse rather than a charger,
gives us not only cavalry and a horseman,
but a chevalier; and we must needs take the
terrible cannon from canna, a cane or hollow
tube. Musket (French, mousquet; Italian,
moschetto) was the name of a sparrow-hawk,
which brought down game as fowling-pieces
do now: and tertiolus, another species of hawk,
stood godfather to the German terzerol, a
small pistol.

Attached to the names of the various
grades of military service we find many
suggestive histories of words. First, as to the
general term soldier: that and sou, the small
French coin, are derived from the same
source- solidus, a Roman standard gold coin,
which, having come to signify coin generally,
soldo was used in Italian for pay. Hence,
soldare, to pay; soldato, soldier, one who is
paid.

Our corporal is not at all connected with
corporeal punishment, but with the word
cap; for it ought to be caporal or caporale, as
in French and Italian, derived from capo
(caput), the chief of the regiment, from which
we have also captain, or chieftain, which is
the same word. A colonel is only the
commander of a column; and a lieutenant, the
place-holder of a superior officer, in lieu of
him as it were, or il tenente (Sardinian);
whilst sergeant is probably a corruption of
servant, the v being interchangeable with g,
as in William, Guillaume.

But the highest is in origin the meanest
term: the marshal is not only a servant, but
the servant of a horse. The word is derived
from the German, where, in the old dialect,
marah-scale meant a farrier, from marah, a
mare, and scale, a servant. Our brevet and
brief are alike from the Latin breve, an
abstract or short note; the former through a
Norman, and the latter through a German
channel. Guardian is warden, and the guards
are wards; the Gothic fodr gives fodder,
forage- fodero, Italian, and feurre and fourrage,
French. Every one of these words, says
Müller, has a long tale to tell. How they
have wandered from country to country,