22 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOR 



through, incompetence or neglect on the part of their instructors, 

 have picked up and retained a very small proportion of those 

 intellectual and moral acquisitions which are needed for a suc- 

 cessful career. Still more necessary for these is that continued 

 course of training and study for which we have been pleading ; 

 and it is for such as these, amongst others, that the POPULAR 

 EDUCATOR, with its numerous courses of instruction, is pub- 

 lished. We have before alluded to the classes which are formed 

 in various parts of the country, for the purpose of mutual 

 instruction in these subjects. Others may be formed in the 

 following manner : let ten or more persons arrange a meeting, 

 and, when they come together, choose a secretary, who shall 

 mark attendance, conduct correspondence, and do whatever else 

 is required of him. One or more subjects should then be fixed 

 upon for study, and the numbers of the POPULAR EDUCATOR 

 which contain the first lessons on these subjects made known. 

 These lessons should be gone carefully over by each member of 

 the class, and the difficulties noted down before the next meeting. 

 When that takes place, the lessons should be read over by the 

 members in turn, sentence by sentence, and the difficulties dis- 

 cussed. It would almost certainly happen that some one or two 

 members of the class would be in advance of the rest. These may 

 act as monitors for the time, each taking a few members and 

 solving their difficulties ; and when the lessons have thus been 

 explained, a course of mutual questioning and familiar conver- 

 sation will serve to fix them on the minds of all present. In 

 this way the meetings of the class will be both pleasant and 

 profitable, and a small expenditure of time and labour produce a 

 large reward. 



It has now been clearly demonstrated, that education is a 

 process which is carried on from the cradle to the grave. But 

 we will go further than this, and say must instead of is must 

 be carried on from the cradle to the grave. For if our young 

 people neglect to cultivate their mental faculties, and choose to 

 waste their spare hours in idle trifling, they render up them- 

 selves a willing prey to the wiles of the wicked, and the 

 machinations of designing men. Ill weeds grow apace on 

 neglected land. And so, if we fail to fill the mind with what is 

 useful and good, evil creeps in with stealthy pace, dulls and ob- 

 scures the soul, and turns what should bo a fruitful garden 

 into a barren wilderness. If a useful education and humanising 

 influences fail to guide human beings into right paths, an 

 evil education will inevitably debase their faculties, and render 

 them fruitful causes of misery, instead of great and inestimable 

 blessings. 



LESSONS IN" ITALIAN. XX. 



THE PREPOSITION PER. 



THIS preposition denotes 



1. The passage through a place, or, more generally speaking, 

 a relation between two objects, one of which gets moving along, 

 piercing, penetrating, etc., through another. For example : 



JE'-gli pas-sb per la cd-me-ra, he went through the room. 



A Eu-ma si puo an-dd-re per Fi-rHn-ae, o per Lo-re-to, one may goto 



Borne by way of Florence or Loretto. 



Pas-sd-re per u-na cit-td, to pass through a town. [place. 



Per di qua, per di Id, through this place, through here, through that 

 Per di sot-to, per di so-pra, through under there, through above 



there. 



2. The cause, motive, means by which any purpose is or can 

 be effected, instrumentality. The latter idea, however, is most 

 frequently expressed by the words me-didn-te, per mex-zo di, 

 per vi-a di, by means of, by the agency of, through. For 

 example : 



E'-gli td-ce per ti-m6-re, per ver-go-rjna, lie is silent out of fear, for 

 shame. [lucre. 



La-vo-ra per qua-dd-gno, he works for the sake of interest, gain; or 

 lo-go-rd-to per il lun-go u-so, worn out by a long use. 

 E'-gli e in pri-gio-ne per de'-bi-ti, he is in prison for debt. 



3. A purpose, end, or aim in view, object, tendency, endeavour, 

 effort. This is a most frequent and important use of per, which 

 in this case exactly coincides with the English conjunctions to, 

 in order to, so as to. For example : 



-E" ve-nu-to per ve-Aer-vi, he has come to see you. 



Siu-did-re, liig-ge-re, tra-dur-re, per im-pa-rd-re, to study, to read, to 

 translate in order to learn. 



4. An ability or qualification to do a thing, also in this case 

 corresponding to the English conjunction to, or to suitable pre- 

 positions with present participles. For example : 



E'l-la ha in-ge-gno ab-ba-stan-za per fdr-lo me-glio di lui, she has suffi- 

 cient intellect to do it better than he. 



5. The state of being about to do, or on the point of doing 

 anything. For example : 



^s-se-re, std-re per fa-re qudl-che co-sa, to be about to do something. 



6. Any substitution of persons and things, exchange, barter, 

 etc., corresponding to the English prepositions in the place of, 

 instead of, in lieu of, for, etc. For example : 



Ho ven-du-to il mi-o ca-vdl-lo per die-ci dop-pie, I have sold nay horse 



for ten pistoles. [other. 



Pren-der I' u-no per V dl-iro, to take one for or in the place of the 



7. A continuation with regard to space or time. For 

 example : 



C6r-re-re per un mi-glio, to run a mile. 



F a-ti-cd-re per tut-to un gi6r-no, to work hard for a whole day. 



An-dd-re per ter-ra, per ind-re, to go by land, by sea. 



8. Distributive portions. For example : 



Tdn-to per gior-no, per me-se, so much a day, a month. 

 Tdn-to per uo-mo, per te-sta, so much a man, a head. 



In addition to these uses the preposition per frequently coin- 

 cides with by. For example : 



Fd-re qudl-cUe co-sa per dr-di-ne del pa-drd-ne, to do something by 



order of the master. 

 Per vo-stro con-si-glio, by your advice. 

 PrSn-de-re, te-nar u-no per la md-no, per un brdc-cio, to take, hold one 



by the hand, by one arm. 

 Ti-rdr pe' ca-pe-gli, to pull by the hair. 



An important use of per is the following : Per quanta, or 

 merely per (along with the noun, adjective, verb, etc., imme- 

 diately connected with it) in the course of the sentence followed 

 by che (thus : per . . . che), signify as much as, however, as, 

 whatever, etc. For example : 



Per po-co ch' i-o be-va, however little I may drink, or, little as I may 



drink. [as she may be. 



Pec bel-la ch' el-la sl-a, however beautiful she may be, or, beautiful 



Gwa-dd-gna pe-ro da vi-ve-re, however little he may work, still he 



gains his livelihood (i.e. to live). 



It is obvious that even this detailed illustration of the uses 

 of per cannot do full justice to the great variety of its meanings ; 

 and only a judicious reading of good authors will enable the 

 pupil to make up this deficiency. Many phrases not explained 

 in the preceding remarks will be clear to him at first sight, and 

 without an effort. For example : 



E'-gli lia per m6-glie u-na Ro-md-na, he has married a Roman. 

 A-ve-re u-no per a-mi-co, to have a friend in one, etc. 



A careful study of the following vocabulary and exercise, 

 and indeed of all the vocabularies and exercises on the prepo- 

 sitions hitherto explained, will perhaps be the best preparation 

 for a more thorough knowledge of the language in this direction. 



VOCABULARY. 



