23 JUNE 1888, Page 26

Two lively books on etymology are The Philosophy of Words

: a Popular Introduction to the Science of Language, and The Fortunes of Words. By Federico Garlanda, Ph.D. (Triibner and Co.)—Dr. Garlanda must not be trusted implicitly. He is very much astray, for instance, when he says in the latter of these books that "ethics are fundamentally that which is in accordance with the usage of the most." He must read up his Aristotle, from whom we get the word, and who certainly meant nothing of the sort by it. But he has a great amount of information to give to his readers, and he gives it in a very pleasant way.