He found the place too warm for him,
For they set fire to Moscow.

To get there had cost him much ado,
And then no better course he knew,

While the fields were green, and the sky was blue,
Morbleu! Parbleu !

But to march back again from Moscow.

The Russians they stuck close to him
All on the road from Moscow.
There was Tormazow and Jemalow,
And all the others that end in ow;
Miloradovitch and Jaladovitch,
And Karatschkowitch,

And all the others that end in itch;
Schamscheff, Souchosaneff,
And Schepaleff,

And all the others that end in eff;
Wasiltschikoff, Kostomaroff,
And Tchoglokoff,

And all the others that end in off;
Rajeffsky, and Novereffsky,

And Rieffsky,

And all the others that end in effsky;
Oscharoffsky and Rostoffsky,

And all the others that end in offsky;
And Platoff he played them off,
And Shouvaloff he shovelled them off,
And Markoff he marked them off,
And Krosnoff he crossed them off,
And Tuchkoff he touched them off,
And Boroskoff he bored them off,
And Kutousoff he cut them off,
And Parenzoff he pared them off,
And Worronzoff he worried them off,
And Doctoroff he doctored them off,
And Rodionoff he flogged them off;
And, last of all, an Admiral came,
A terrible man with a terrible name,
A name which you all know by sight very well,
But which no one can speak, and no one can spell.
They stuck close to Nap with all their might;

They were on the left and on the right,
Behind and before, by day and by night;
He would rather parlez-vous than fight.
But he looked white, and he looked blue,

Morbleu! Parbleu!

When parlez-vous no more would do,
For they remembered Moscow.

And then came on the frost and snow,

All on the road from Moscow.

The wind and the weather, he found in that hour,
Cared nothing for him, nor for all his power;

For him who, while Europe crouched under his rod,
Put his trust in his fortune, and not in his God.
Worse and worse every day the elements grew,
The fields were so white, and the sky so blue,
Sacrebleu! Ventrebleu!

What a horrible journey to Moscow!

What then thought the Emperor Nap,
Upon the road from Moscow ?

Why, I ween he thought it small delight
To fight all day and to freeze all night;
And he was besides in a very great fright,
For a whole skin he liked to be in;
And so, not knowing what else to do,
When the fields were so white, and the sky so blue,
Morbleu! Parbleu!

He stole away--I tell you true-
Upon the road from Moscow.

'Tis myself, quoth he, I must mind most;
So the devil may take the hindmost.

Too cold upon the road was he;
Too hot had he been at Moscow
But colder and hotter he may be,
For the grave is colder than Muscovy;
And a place there is to be kept in view,
Where the fire is red, and the brimstone blue,
Morbleu! Parbleu!

Which he must go to,

If the Pope say true,

If he does not in time look about him;
Where his namesake almost

He may have for his Host;

He has reckoned too long without him;
If that Host get him in Purgatory,

He wont leave him there alone with his glory;
But there he must stay for a very long day,

For from thence there is no stealing away,

As there was on the road from Moscow.-SOUTHEY.

DICTIONARY English is something very different not only from common colloquial English, but even from that of ordinary written composition. Instead of about forty thousand words, there is probably no single author in the language from whose works, however voluminous, so many as ten thousand words could be collected. Of the forty thousand words there are certainly many more than one-half that are only employed, if they are ever employed at all, on the rarest occasions. We should be surprised to find, if we counted them, with how small a number of words we manage to express all that we have to say, either with our lips or with the pen. Our common literary English probably hardly amounts to ten thousand words; our common spoken English hardly to five thousand.

SOURCES OF THE LANGUAGE.

Some years ago, a gentleman, after carefully examining the folio edition of Johnson's Dictionary, formed the following table of English words derived from other languages:

Latin.............6,732 | Swedish............. 34

French...........4,812 Gothic............
Saxon............1,665 Hebrew.

Irish and Erse.........2
Turkish........

31

2

.16

Irish and Scottish.....1

The difficulty of applying rules to the pronunciation of our language may be illustrated in two lines, where the combina

tion of the letters ough is pronounced in no less than seven viz.: as o, uff, off, up, ow, oo, and ock:

different

ways,
THOUGH the TOUGH COUGH and HICсOUGH PLOUGH me THROUGH,
O'er life's dark LOUGH my course I still pursue.

The following attempts to show the sound of ough final are ingenious :

Though from rough cough or hiccough free,

That man has pain enough

Whose wounds through plough, sunk in a slough,
Or lough begin to slough.

'Tis not an easy task to show

How o, u, g, h, sound; since though
An Irish lough and English slough,
And cough, and hiccough, all allow
Differ as much as tough and through,
There seems no reason why they do.

ITS.

His is the genitive (or as we say, possessive) of he, (he's,his,) and it or hit, as it was long written, is the neuter of he, the final t being the sign of the neuter. The introduction of its, as the neuter genitive instead of his, arose from a misconception, similar to that which would have arisen had the Romans introduced illudius as the neuter genitive of ille, instead of illius. Its does not once occur in our authorized version of the Bible, his or her being used instead. Its occurs, I believe, only three times in all Shakspeare; and I doubt whether Milton admitted it into Paradise Lost, although when that was composed, others freely allowed it. French.

THAT.

The use of the word That in the following examples is strictly in accordance with grammatical rules:

The gentleman said, in speaking of the word that, that that that that that lady parsed, was not that that that that gentleman requested her to analyze.

Now, that is a word that may often be joined,
For that that may be doubled is clear to the mind;
And that that that is right, is as plain to the view,
As that that that that we use, is rightly used too,
And that that that that that line has in it, is right-
In accordance with grammar-is plain in our sight.

I SAY.

A gentleman who was in the habit of interlarding his discourse with the expression "I say," having been informed by a friend that a certain individual had made some ill-natured remarks upon this peculiarity, took the opportunity of addressing him in the following amusing style of rebuke:-"I say, sir, I hear say you say I say 'I say' at every word I say. Now, sir, although I know I say 'I say' at every word I say, still I say, sir, it is not for you to say I say 'I say' at every word I say."

PATH-OLOGY.

There once resided in Ayrshire a man who, like Leman, proposed to write an Etymological Dictionary of the English language. Being asked what he understood the word pathology to mean, he answered, with great readiness and confidence, "Why, the art of road-making, to be sure."

EXCISE.

The following curious document gives the opinion of Lord Mansfield, when Attorney-General, upon Dr. Johnson's definition of the word Excise :

CASE.

Mr. Samuel Johnson has lately published a book, entitled A Dictionary of the English Language, in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed a history of the Language, and an English grammar. Under the title "Excise" are the following words

:

EXCISE, n. s. (accijs, Dutch; excisum, Latin,) a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom Excise is paid.