lish will soon push out the
relics of the old Scotch tongue. Burns will soon be read by lexicon,
even in the shire of Ayr. Men now write poetry in Scotch as boys at Eton
and Harrow write Latin verses, the result in both cases being, as a
rule, hideous and artificial doggrel. The little book, _Wee Macgregor_,
written in what may be called the Scotch Cockney dialect, was a brave
and amusing attempt to phonograph the talk of a Glasgow boy of the lower
middle class. The unlovely speech employed by the author is, happily,
quite unlike the careful and deliberate speech of the educated citizen
of Glasgow or Paisley. The main differences between the educated Scot
and the educated Englishman are that the vowel sounds of the former are
pure and that _r_ and _h_ have a real value in most words where these
letters occur.

It seems to me a _very undesirable_ thing that a uniform system of
pronunciation should be aimed at in every country of the British Isles.
So long as clear and expressive enunciation of English is attained,
intelligible differences of vocalisation, pitch, and even of vocabulary,
are allowable, and at times positively charming. Monotony is the bane of
life.

CHOICE BOOKS.

"Whether the books are borrowed books or no
That show their varied stature row on row
Along your walls, there will I truly find
The image of your character and mind.
Light, flimsy novels suit the flying train
Or _Western Isle_ excursions of Macbrayne,
Where, dazed by gleaming firths of visible heat,
The torpid soul disdains substantial meat;
But oft-read volumes, to which men recur
The whole year round, bespeak the character."

The above lines, written by some unknown poetaster, indicate that it is
the book we read over and over again that has the greatest potency in
our education. I quite agree with the author, and I love to behold the
well-thumbed pocket-edition that speaks to the eye of much handling and
frequent perusal. There are very few books _worth_ reading once that are
not worth reading oftener. Hobbes used to say that if he had read as
much literature as the majority of men, he would have been as ignorant
as they. In that remark what depths of meaning lie! The sage of
Malmesbury attributed his success in philosophy to his habit of
judicious selection--to the fact that he concentrated his attention on
those authors who were likely to help the development of his powers.
Selection is more