STATISTICS REGARDING SILVER IN RUSSIA, 1871 to 1875. STUDENT DRAGOMANS. August 1877. By comparing the quantity of silver imported in 1873 (which represents the maximum imported since 1871), after deduction made of the quantity exported in the same year, with the quantity absorbed by the Mint, it is found that there remains a surplus of nearly 15,000,000 roubles value. The quantity of silver used in various articles of manufacture has not as yet been ascertained. There is a very considerable weight annually absorbed in Russia, particularly at Moscow, in the manufacture of various descriptions of ornaments and plate. FOR DICTATION. (I.) (OBLIGATORY.) One of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of Bacon's mind is the order in which its powers expanded themselves. In general, the development of the fancy is to the development of the judgment what the growth of a girl is to the growth of a boy. The fancy attains at an earlier period to the perfection of its beauty, its power and its fruitfulness; and, as it is first to ripen, it is also first to fade. It has generally lost something of its bloom and freshness before the sterner faculties have reached maturity; and is commonly withered and barren while those faculties still retain all their energy. It rarely happens that the fancy and the judgment grow together. It happens still more rarely that the judgment grows faster than the fancy. This seems, however, to have been the case with Bacon. His gigantic scheme of philosophical reform is said by some writers to have been planned before he was fifteen, and was undoubtedly planned while he was still young. He observed as vigilantly, meditated as deeply, and judged as temperately when he gave his first work to the world as at the close of his long career. But in eloquence, in sweetness and variety of expression, and in richness of illustration, his later writings are far superior to those of his youth. In this respect the history of his mind bears some resemblance to the history of the mind of Burke. The treatise on the Sublime and Beautiful is the most unadorned of all Burke's works. It appeared when he was twenty-five or twenty-six. When, at forty, he wrote the Thoughts on the Causes of the existing Discontents, his reason and his judgment had reached their full maturity; but his eloquence was still in its splendid dawn. At fifty, his rhetoric was quite as rich as good taste would permit; and when he died, at almost seventy, it had become ungracefully gorgeous. STUDENT DRAGOMANS. August 1877. FOR DICTATION. (II.) (OBLIGATORY.) Suppose that at that period which closed the schools at Athens the last few sages who still haunted the Portico had been thus addressed : "A thousand years have elapsed since, in this famous city, Socrates unfolded the doctrines of his philosophy; during those thousand years a large proportion of the ablest men of every generation has been employed in constant efforts to bring that philosophy to perfection; and what has it effected? What has it enabled us to do which we should not have been equally able to do without it?" Such questions, we suspect, would have puzzled the survivors of the ancient school. Ask a follower of Bacon what the new philosophy, as it was called in the time of Charles the Second, has effected for mankind, and his answer is ready: "It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished diseases; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to the mariner; it has furnished new arms to the warrior; it has spanned great rivers and estuaries with bridges of form unknown to our fathers; it has guided the thunderbolt innocuously from heaven to earth; it has lighted up the night with the splendour of the day; it has extended the range of the human vision; it has multiplied the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated motion; it has annihilated distance; it has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all despatch of business; it has enabled man to descend to the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the earth, to traverse the land in cars which whirl along without horses, and the ocean in ships which run ten knots an hour against the wind. It is a philosophy which never rests, which has never attained, which is never perfect. A point which yesterday was invisible is its goal to-day, and will be its startingpost to-morrow." (II.) ARITHMETIC. (OBLIGATORY.) Time allowed, 3 hours. N.B.-You are particularly recommended to answer the questions in the order in which they are set; not omitting any one unless you are unable to do it. 1. Reduce 2 lbs. 3 ozs. 4 dwts. to grains. 2. If £2. ls. 8d. will buy 2 tons 3 cwt. of coals, how much may be bought for £100 ? 3. Find (by Practice) the value of 12 tons 3 cwt. 2 qrs. 14 lbs. at £3 per ton. 4. Find the simple interest on £5,453 for 9 years at 54 per cent. per annum, neglecting fractions of a penny. 9. Add together 7.0031, 00631, 786 443210, and 439 68731. 10. Subtract 187 84756 from 200 0732. 11. Multiply 526 399 by 0273. 12. Divide 1.806 by 6.45. 13. Reduce 2 yards 2 feet 3 inches to the decimal of a mile. 14. Reduce 3 miles 2 furlongs 5 poles 2 yards to feet. 15. If I get 1 lb. of, bread for 1s. when wheat is 6s. a bushel, what should be the price of wheat per quarter when I get 12 oz. of bread for 4d.? 16. Find (by Practice) the dividend on £327. 16s. 8d. at 13s. 3d. in the £. 17. Find the amount of £2,880 in 3 years at 3 per cent. compound interest (neglecting fractions of a penny). 22. Add together 11 431, 243.734, 400, 0005, and 54 4455. 23. Subtract 489 938 from 501.2635. 24. Multiply 6840 by 0985. 25. Divide 12.987 by 2220. 26. Reduce 02753 of one guinea to pence and the decimal of a penny. 27. In 562493 ounces how many tons, cwts., qrs., &c. ? 28. A bankrupt's debts amount to £16,000 and his assets to £7,000, what will a creditor receive to whom he owes £427. 5s. ? 29. Find (by Practice) the value of 57625 articles at £1. 11s. 7d. per score. 30. At what rate per cent. will £345 amount to £515. 15s. 6d. in 11 years at simple interest? 31. Add together 417, 13, 1, and 21. 32. Subtract 1233 from 20,54. 33. Multiply together 6, 5, 1, and 3. 34. Divide by 15. 35. Add together 62 309, 543 2576, 00654, and 2.92549. 36. Subtract 599 9876 from 1000 2087. 37. Multiply 02689 by 005432. 38. Divide 77.88 by ·00885. 39. Reduce 263 of 2 lbs. 3 ozs. 6 dwts. to grains and the decimal of a grain. STUDENT DRAGOMANS. August 1877. STUDENT DRAGOMANS. an Add up as many of the columns as you can in the time allowed ( N.B.-You had better occupy the whole time allowed. |