The transition from tablets to paper as a writing material has also a monument in _volume_, which, in spite of its significance as a roll of paper, is applied to the neatly folded books which have taken the place of that cumbrous form of literature. More than one instance of a similar retention of a word the actual signification of which is completely obsolete, might easily be adduced. The word _indenture_ refers to an ancient precaution against forgery resorted to in the case of important contracts. The duplicate documents, of which each party retained one, were irregularly _indented_ in precisely the same manner, so that upon comparison they might exactly tally. A _vignette_ portrait has also lost the accompaniment which alone made the name appropriate, namely, the vine-leaves and tendrils which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries usually formed its ornamental border. The directions in the English Prayer-book, again, are still known as _rubrics_ (Latin _ruber_, red), although it is now the exception rather than the rule to see them printed as originally, in _red_ letters. Once more, we apply without any sense of incongruity the name of _pen_ (from Latin _penna_, a feather) to all those modern appliances which rival, if they have not yet superseded, the quill, to which alone the word is really appropriate. Several words come down to us derived from customs connected with election to public offices. The word _candidate_ (from Latin _candidus_, white), is one of these. It was customary among the Romans for any suitor for office to appear in a peculiar dress denoting his position. His toga was loose, so that he might show the people the scars of the wounds received in the cause of the commonwealth, and artificially _whitened_ in token of fidelity and humility. Again, _ambition_—a word of which the significance has been widened to embrace the most overpowering of all the passions of the human heart—refers primarily to the practice of these same candidates of repairing to the forum and other places of public resort, and their “going round” (Latin _ambientes_) among the people, endeavoring to ingratiate themselves by friendly words and greetings. From the ancient practice of secret voting by means of “balls,” we have the word _ballot_, which is erroneously applied to all secret voting, even when, as in the case of our parliamentary elections, voting-papers, and not balls, are employed. Nor must we omit another word of similar origin—that is, _ostracism_. This word signified among the Greeks the temporary banishment which might be inflicted by six thousand votes of the Athenian people upon any person suspected of designs against the liberty of the state. The name arose from the votes being recorded upon a bit of burnt clay or an earthenware tile shaped like a shell (Gr. _ostrakon_, a shell). It is closely allied to the Greek _ostreon_, or Latin _ostrea_, an oyster. A somewhat similar practice existed among