When we study the animal world and try to explain to ourselves that struggle for existence which is maintained by each living being against adverse circumstances and against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal society, and have become habitual to it, the more chance it has of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the struggle against hardships and foes. The more thoroughly each member of the society feels his solidarity with each other member of the society, the more completely are developed in all of them those two qualities which are the main factors of all progress; courage, on the one hand, and, on the other, free individual initiative. And, on the contrary, the more any animal society, or little group of animals, loses this feeling of solidarity—which may chance as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional plenty—the more the two other factors of progress, courage and individual initiative, diminish; in the end they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks before its foes. Without mutual confidence no struggle is possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity—and no victory!—Kropotkin.
SPELLING
LESSON 8
In pronouncing words of more than one syllable we always lay a little greater stress upon one syllable of the word; that is, that syllable receives the emphasis of the voice so as to make it more prominent than the other syllables. This is called accent, and the syllable which receives the special stress is called the accented syllable.
Accent is the stress of the voice upon one syllable of the word.
You will notice when you look up the pronunciation of words in your dictionary that a little mark called the accent mark is placed after the accented syllable, as for example: di-vide'.
Many words differ in meaning according to which syllable receives the accent. Our spelling lesson for this week contains a number of these words.
These words, when accented on the first syllable, are nouns; when accented on the second syllable, they are verbs.
Monday
| Con' tract | Con tract' |
| Pro' test | Pro test' |
| Rec' ord | Re cord' |
| Im' port | Im port' |
| De' tail | De tail' |