presented to the 
 
 LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
 by 
 FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY 
 
 MR. JOHN f\ 
 donor 
 
 gjftl? 
 
 iff
 

 
 /jXUBRARY 
 
 /UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 t 
 
 CAtlFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 BY ALFRED AYRES. 
 
 THE 
 
 ORTHOEPIST: 
 
 A Pronouncing Manual, 
 
 CONTAINING ABOUT THREE THOU- 
 SAND FIVE HUNDRED WORDS, 
 
 INCLUDING A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF THE NAMES 
 
 OF FOREIGN AUTHdRS, ARTISTS, ETC., THAT 
 
 ARE OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 
 
 FIFTEENTH EDITION. 
 
 THE 
 
 VE RB A LIST: 
 
 A Manual 
 
 DEVOTED TO BRIEF DISCUSSIONS OF 
 
 THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG 
 
 USE OF WORDS, 
 
 AND TO SOME OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO 
 
 THOSE WHO WOULD SPEAK AND WRITE WITH 
 
 PROPRIETY. 
 
 TENTH EDITION. 
 
 18mo, cloth, each, $1.OO.
 
 THE 
 
 VERBALIST: 
 
 A MA N UA L 
 
 DEVOTED 
 
 TO BRIEF DISCUSSIONS OF THE RIGHT AND THE 
 WRONG USE OF WORDS 
 
 AND 
 
 TO SOME OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THOSE WHO 
 WOULD SPEAK AND WRITE WITH PROPRIETY. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED AYRE S, 
 
 WE remain shackled by timidity till we have learned to speak with 
 propriety. JOHNSON. 
 
 As a man is known by his company, so a man's company may be 
 known by his manner of expressing himself. SWIFT. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 I, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 THE title-page sufficiently sets forth the end 
 this little book is intended to serve. 
 
 For convenience' sake I have arranged in 
 alphabetical order the subjects treated of, and 
 for economy's sake I have kept in mind that 
 "he that uses many words for the explaining of 
 any subject doth, like the cuttle-fish, hide him- 
 self in his own ink." 
 
 TJie curious inquirer who sets himself to 
 look for the learning in the book is advised 
 that he will best find it in such works as George 
 P. Marsh's " Lectures on the English Language," 
 Fitzedward Hall's " Recent Exemplifications 
 of False Philology," and " Modern English," 
 Richard Grant White's "Words and Their 
 Uses," Edward S. Gould's " Good English,"
 
 4 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 William Mathews' " Words : their Use and 
 Abuse," Dean Alford's " The Queen's Eng- 
 lish," George Washington Moon's " Bad Eng- 
 lish," and "The Dean's English," Blank's 
 "Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech," 
 Alexander Bain's " English Composition and 
 Rhetoric,'' Bain's " Higher English Grammar," 
 Bain's " Composition Grammar," Quackenbos' 
 " Composition and Rhetoric," John Nichol's 
 " English Composition," William Cobbett's 
 " English Grammar," Peter Bullions' " English 
 Grammar," Goold Brown's " Grammar of Eng- 
 lish Grammars," Graham's "English Syno- 
 nymes," Crabb's "English Synonymes," Bige- 
 low's " Hand-book of Punctuation," and other 
 kindred works. 
 
 Suggestions and criticisms are solicited, with 
 the view of profiting by them in future editions. 
 
 If " The Verbalist " receive as kindly a wel- 
 come as its companion volume, " The Orthoe- 
 .pist," has received, I shall be content. 
 
 A. A. 
 NEW YORK, October, 1881.
 
 ESCHEW fine words as you would rouge. HARE. 
 
 Cant is properly a double-distilled lie ; the second 
 power of a lie. CARLYLE. 
 
 If a gentleman be to study any language, it ought to be 
 that of his own country. LOCKE. 
 
 In language the unknown is generally taken for the 
 magnificent. RICHARD GRANT WHITE. 
 
 He who has a superlative for everything, wants a meas- 
 ure for the great or small. LAVATER. 
 
 Inaccurate writing is generally the expression of inac- 
 curate thinking. RICHARD GRANT WHITE. 
 
 To acquire a few tongues is the labor of a few years ; but 
 to be eloquent in one is the labor of a life. ANONYMOUS. 
 
 Words and thoughts are so inseparably connected that 
 an artist in words is necessarily an artist in thoughts. 
 WILSON FLAGG. 
 
 It is an invariable maxim that words which add nothing 
 to the sense or to the clearness must diminish the force of 
 the expression. CAMPBELL. 
 
 Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are com- 
 monly found together. Obscurity of expression generally 
 springs from confusion of ideas. MACAULAY. 
 
 He who writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in 
 words can proceed from nothing but confusedness in ths 
 thoughts which give rise to them. COBBETT.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 A An. The second form of the indefinite article is 
 used for the sake of euphony only. Herein everybody 
 agrees, but what everybody does not agree in is, that it is 
 euphonious to use an before a word beginning with an as- 
 pirated A, when the accented syllable of the word is the 
 second. For myself, so long as I continue to aspirate the 
 h's in such words as heroic, harangue, and historical, I shall 
 continue to use a before them ; and when I adopt the Cock- 
 ney mode of pronouncing such words, then I shall use an 
 before them. To my ear it is just as euphonious to say, " I 
 will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, 
 and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent," as it 
 is to say an harangue, an heroic, or an historical. An is 
 well enough before the doubtful British aspiration, but 
 before the distinct American aspiration it is wholly out of 
 place. The reply will perhaps be, " But these Its are si- 
 lent ; the change of accent from the first syllable to the 
 second neutralizes their aspiration." However true this 
 may be in England, it is not at all true in America ; hence 
 we Americans should use a and not an before such h's un- 
 til we decide to ape the Cockney mode of pronouncing 
 them. 
 
 Errors are not unfrequently made by omitting to repeat 
 the article in a sentence. It should always be repeated
 
 8 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 when a noun or an adjective referring to a distinct thing 
 is introduced ; take, for example, the sentence, " He has 
 a black and white horse." If two horses are meant, it 
 is clear that it should be, " He has a black and a white 
 horse."- See THE. 
 
 Ability Capacity. The distinctions between these 
 two words are not always observed by those who use them. 
 " Capacity is the power of receiving and retaining knowl- 
 edge with facility ; ability is the power of applying knowl- 
 edge to practical purposes. Both these faculties are requi- 
 site to form a great character : capacity to conceive, and 
 ability to execute designs. Capacity is shown in quickness 
 of apprehension. Ability supposes something done ; some- 
 thing by which the mental power is exercised in executing, 
 or performing, what has been perceived by the capacity." 
 Graham's " English Synonymes." 
 
 Abortive. An outlandish use of this word may be oc- 
 casionally met with, especially in the newspapers. " A 
 lad was yesterday caught in the act of abortively appro- 
 priating a pair of shoes." That is abortive that is untime- 
 ly, that has not been borne its full time, that is immature. 
 We often hear abortion used in the sense of failure, but 
 never by those that study to express themselves in chaste 
 English. 
 
 Above. There is little authority for using this word as 
 an adjective. Instead of, " the above statement," say, " the 
 foregoing statement." Above is also used very inelegantly 
 for more than ; as, " above a mile," " above a thousand" ; 
 also, for beyond ; as, ' ' above his strength." 
 
 Accident. See CASUALTY. 
 
 Accord. " He [the Secretary of the Treasury] was 
 shown through the building, and the information he de- 
 sired was accorded him." Reporters' English.
 
 THE VERBALIST, g 
 
 " The heroes prayed, and Pallas from the skies 
 
 Accords their vow." Pope. 
 
 The goddess of wisdom, when she granted the prayers 
 of her worshipers, may be said to have accorded ; not so, 
 however, when the clerks of our Sub-Treasury answer the 
 inquiries of their chief. 
 
 Accuse. See BLAME IT ON. 
 
 Acquaintance. See FRIEND. 
 
 Ad. This abbreviation for the word advertisement is 
 very justly considered a gross vulgarism. It is doubtful 
 whether it is permissible under any circumstances. 
 
 Adapt Dramatize. In speaking and in writing of 
 stage matters, these words are often misused. To adapt a 
 play is to modify its construction with the view of improv- 
 ing its form for representation. Plays translated from one 
 language into another are usually more or less adapted ; 
 i. e., altered to suit the taste of the public before which the 
 translafion is to be represented. To dramatize is to change 
 the form of a story from the narrative to the dramatic ; i. e., 
 to make a drama out of a story. In the first instance, the 
 product of the playwright's labor is called an adaptation ; 
 in the second, a dramatization. 
 
 Adjectives. " Very often adjectives stand where ad- 
 verbs might be expected ; as, ' drink deep,' ' this looks 
 strange,' ' standing erect' 
 
 " We have also examples of one adjective qualifying an- 
 other adjective ; as, 'wide open,' ' red hot,' 'the pale blue 
 sky.' Sometimes the corresponding adverb is used, but 
 with a different meaning ; as, ' I found the way easy easily ' 
 ' it appears clear clearly' Although there is a propriety in 
 the employment of the adjective in certain instances, yet 
 such forms as ' indifferent well,' ' extreme bad,' are gram- 
 matical errors. ' He was interrogated relative to that cir-
 
 10 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 cumstance,' should be relatively, or in relation to. It is not 
 unusual to say, ' I would have done it independent of that 
 circumstance,' but independently is the proper construction. 
 
 " The employment of adjectives for adverbs is accounted 
 for by the following considerations : 
 
 "(i.) In the classical languages the neuter adjective may 
 be used as an adverb, and the analogy would appear to 
 have been extended to English. 
 
 "(2.) In the oldest English the adverb was regularly 
 formed from the adjective by adding ' e,' as ' soft, soft^,' and 
 the dropping of the 'e' left the adverb in the edjective 
 form ; thus, ' clcenej adverb, became 'clean,' and appears in 
 the phrase ' clean gone ' ; 'ftzste, fast,' ' to stick fast.' By a 
 false analogy, many adjectives that never formed adverbs 
 in -e were freely used as adverbs in the age of Elizabeth : 
 ' Thou didst it excellent,' ' eqiial(ior equally) good,' ' excellent 
 well.' This gives precedent for such errors as those men- 
 tioned above. 
 
 " (3.) There are cases where the subject is qualified rather 
 than the verb, as with verbs of incomplete predication, ' be- 
 ing,' ' seeming,' ' arriving,' etc. In ' the matter seems clear,' 
 ' clear ' is part of the predicate of ' matter.' ' They arrived 
 safe' : ' safe ' does not qualify ' arrived,' but goes with it to 
 complete the predicate. So, 'he sat silent' 1 ' he Stood firm' 
 'It comes beautiful' and ' it comes beautifully' have dif- 
 ferent meanings. This explanation applies especially to 
 the use of participles as adverbs, as in Southey's lines on 
 Loclore ; the participial epithets applied there, although 
 appearing to modify ' came,' are really additional predica- 
 tions about ' the water,' in elegantly shortened form. ' The 
 church stood gleaming through the trees': ' gleaming ' is a 
 shortened predicate of ' church ' ; and the full form would 
 be, 'the church stood and gleamed.' The participle retains
 
 THE VERBALIST. \\ 
 
 its force as such, while acting the part of a coordinating 
 adjective, complement to 'stood' ; 'stood gleaming' is lit- 
 tle more than 'gleamed.' The feeling of adverbial force 
 in ' gleaming ' arises from the subordinate participial form 
 joined with a verb, ' stood,' that seems capable of predicat- 
 ing by itself. ' Passing strange ' is elliptical : ' passing (sur- 
 passing) what is strange.' " Bain. 
 
 " The comparative adjectives -wiser, better, larger, etc., 
 and the contrasting adjectives different, other, etc., are often 
 so placed as to render the construction of the sentence awk- 
 ward ; as, ' That is a much better statement of the case than 
 yours,' instead of, 'That statement of the case is much bet- 
 ter than yours ' ; ' Yours is a larger plot of ground than 
 John's,' instead of, 'Your plot of ground is larger than 
 John's ' ; ' This is a different course of proceeding from 
 what I expected,' instead of, ' This course of proceeding is 
 different from what I expected ' ; ' I could take no other 
 method of silencing him than the one I took,' instead of, 
 ' I could take no method of silencing him other than the 
 one I took.' " Gould's " Good English," p. 69. 
 
 Administer. " Carson died from blows administered 
 by policeman Johnson." " New York Times." If police- 
 man Johnson was as barbarous as is this use of the verb to 
 administer, it is to be hoped that he was hanged. Govern- 
 ments, oaths, medicine, affairs such as the affairs of the 
 state are administered, but not blows : they are dealt. 
 
 Adopt. This word is often used instead of to decide 
 upon, and of to take ; thus, " The measures adopted [by 
 Parliament], as the result of this inquiry, will be productive 
 of good." Better, "The measures decided upon," etc. In- 
 stead of, " What course shall you adopt to get your pay ? " 
 say, "What course shall you take," etc. Adopt is properly 
 used in a sentence like this : " The course (or measures)
 
 12 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 proposed by Mr. Blank was adipted by the committee." 
 That is, what was Blank's was adopted by the committee 
 a correct use of the word, as to adopt, means, to assume as 
 one's own. 
 
 Adopt is sometimes so misused that its meaning is in- 
 verted. " Wanted to adopt," in the heading of advertise- 
 ments, not unfrequently is intended to mean that the adver- 
 tiser wishes to be relieved of the care of a child, not that he 
 wishes to assume the care of one. 
 
 Aggravate. This word is often used when the speaker 
 means to provoke, irritate, or anger. Thus, " It aggravates 
 [provokes] me to be continually found fault with " ; " He is 
 easily aggravated [irritated]." To aggravate means to make 
 worse, to heighten. We therefore very properly speak of 
 aggravating circumstances. To say of a person that he is 
 aggravated is as incorrect as to say that he is palliated, 
 
 Agriculturist. This word is to be preferred to agri- 
 culturalist. See CONVERSATIONIST. 
 
 Alike. This word is often most bunglingly coupled 
 with both. Thus, " These bonnets are both alike," or, worse 
 still, if possible, " both just alike." This reminds one of 
 the story of Sam and Jem, who were very like each other, 
 especially Sam. 
 
 All. See UNIVERSAL. 
 
 All over. " The disease spread all over the country." 
 It is more logical and more emphatic to say, " The disease 
 spread over all the country." 
 
 Allegory. An elaborated metaphor is called an alle- 
 gory ; both are figurative representations, the words used 
 signifying something beyond their literal meaning. Thus, 
 in the eightieth Psalm, the Jews are represented under the 
 symbol of a vine : 
 
 " Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou hast
 
 THE VERBALIST. 13 
 
 cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst 
 room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it 
 filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow 
 of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 
 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto 
 the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, 
 so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The 
 boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of 
 the field doth devour it." 
 
 An allegory is sometimes so extended that it makes a 
 volume ; as in the case of Swift's " Tale of a Tub," Ar- 
 buthnot's "John Bull," Banyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," etc. 
 Fables and parables are short allegories. 
 
 Allow. This word is frequently misused in the West 
 and South, where it is made to do service for assert or to be 
 of opinion. Thus, " He allows that he has the finest horse 
 in the country." 
 
 Allude. The treatment this word has received is to be 
 specially regretted, as its misuse has wellnigh robbed it of 
 its true meaning, which is, to intimate delicately, to refer 
 to without mentioning directly. Allude is now very rarely 
 used in any other sense than that of to speak of, to men- 
 tion, to name, which is a long way from being its legiti- 
 mate signification. This degradation is doubtless a direct 
 outcome of untutored desire to be fine and to use big 
 words. 
 
 Alone. This word is often improperly used for only. 
 That is alone which is unaccompanied ; that is only of 
 which there is no other. " Virtue alone makes us happy," 
 means that virtue unaided suffices to make us happy ; 
 " Virtue only makes us happy," means that nothing else 
 can do it that that, and that only (not alone), can do it. 
 " This means of communication is employed by man alone"
 
 14 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Dr. Quackenbos should have written, " By man only" See 
 also ONLY. 
 
 Amateur Novice. There is much confusion in the 
 use of these two words, although they are entirely distinct 
 from each other in meaning. An amateur is one versed in, 
 or a lover and practicer of, any particular pursuit, art, or 
 science, but not engaged in it professionally. A novice is 
 one who is new or inexperienced in any art or business a 
 beginner, a tyro. A professional actor, then, who is new 
 and unskilled in his art, is a novice and not an amateur. 
 An amateur may be an artist of great experience and ex- 
 traordinary skill. 
 
 Ameliorate. ' ' The health of the Empress of Germany 
 is greatly ameliorated. " W T hy not say improved? 
 
 Among. See BETWEEN. 
 
 Amount of Perfection. The observant reader of pe- 
 riodical literature often notes forms of expression which are 
 perhaps best characterized by the word bizarre. Of these 
 queer locutions, amount of perfection is a very good exam- 
 ple. Mr. G. F. Watts, in the " Nineteenth Century," says, 
 "An amount of perfection has been reached which I was 
 by no means prepared for." What Mr. Watts meant to 
 say was, doubtless, that a degree of excellence had been 
 reached. There are not a few who, in their prepossession 
 for everything transatlantic, seem to be of opinion that the 
 English language is generally better written in England 
 than it is in America. Those who think so are counseled 
 to examine the diction of some of the most noted English 
 critics and essayists, beginning, if they will, with Matthew 
 Arnold. 
 
 And. Few vulgarisms are more common than the use 
 of and for to. Examples : " Come and see me before you 
 go " ; " Try and do what you can for him " ; " Go and see
 
 THE VERBALIST. 15 
 
 your brother, if you can." In such sentences as these, the 
 proper particle to use is clearly to and not and. 
 
 And is sometimes improperly used instead of or ; thus, 
 "It is obvious that a language like the Greek and Latin" 
 (language ?), etc., should be, " a language like the Greek or 
 the Latin " (language), etc. There is no such thing as a 
 Greek and Latin language. 
 
 Answer Reply. These two words should not be 
 used indiscriminately. An answer is given to a question ; 
 a reply, to an assertion. When we are addressed, v/e an- 
 swer ; when we are accused, we reply. We answer letters, 
 and reply to any arguments, statements, or accusations they 
 may contain. Crabb is in. error in saying that replies "are 
 used in personal discourse only." Replies, as well as an- 
 swers, are written. We very properly write, " I have 
 now, I believe, answered all your questions and replied to 
 all your arguments." A rejoinder is made to a reply. " Who 
 goes there ? " he cried ; and, receiving no answer, he fired. 
 " The advocate replied to the charges made against his 
 client." 
 
 Anticipate. Lovers of big words have a fondness for 
 making this verb do duty for expect. Anticipate is derived 
 from two Latin words meaning before and to take, and, 
 when properly used, means, to take beforehand ; to go 
 before so as to preclude another ; to get the start or ahead 
 of ; to enjoy, possess, or suffer, in expectation ; to foretaste. 
 It is, therefore, misused in such sentences as, " Her death 
 is hourly anticipated" ; " By this means it is anticipated that 
 the time from Europe will be lessened two days." 
 
 Antithesis. A phrase that opposes contraries is called 
 an antithesis. 
 
 " I see a chief who leads my chosen sons, 
 
 All armed with points, antitheses, and puns." 
 2
 
 16 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 The following are examples : 
 
 " Though gentle, yet not dull ; 
 
 Strong, without rage ; without o'erflowing, full." 
 "Contrasted faults through all their manners reign ; 
 Though poor, luxurious ; though submissive, vain ; 
 Though grave, yet trifling ; zealous, yet untrue ; 
 And e'en in penance planning sins anew." 
 The following is an excellent example of personification 
 and antithesis combined : 
 
 " Talent convinces ; Genius but excites : 
 
 That tasks the reason ; this the soul delights. 
 Talent from sober judgment takes its birth, 
 And reconciles the pinion to the earth ; 
 Genius unsettles with desires the mind, 
 Contented not till earth be left behind." 
 In the following extract from Johnson's " Life of Pope," 
 individual peculiarities are contrasted by means of antith- 
 eses : 
 
 " Of genius that po%ver which constitutes a poet ; that 
 quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is 
 inert ; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and 
 animates the superiority must, with some hesitation, be 
 allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this 
 poetical vigor Pope had only a little, because Dryden had 
 more ; for every other writer, since Milton, must give place 
 to Pope ; and even of Dryden it must be said that, if he 
 has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden 's 
 performances were always hasty, either excited by some 
 external occasion or extorted by domestic necessity ; he 
 composed without consideration and published without 
 correction, ^"hat his mind could supply at call or gather 
 in one excursion was all that he sought and all that he 
 gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to con-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 17 
 
 dense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accu- 
 mulate all that study might produce or chance might 
 supply. If the nights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, 
 Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire 
 the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular 
 and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and 
 Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent 
 astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. Dryden's 
 page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diver- 
 sified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation ; 
 Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled 
 by the roller." 
 
 There are forms of antithesis in which the contrast is 
 only of a secondary kind. 
 
 Any. This word is sometimes made to do service for 
 at all. We say properly, " She is not any better " ; but we 
 can not properly say, " She does not see any" meaning that 
 she is blind. 
 
 Anybody else. " Public School Teachers are in- 
 formed that anybody else's is correct." " New York Times," 
 Sunday, July 31, 1881. An English writer says : " In 
 such phrases as anybody else, and the like, else is often put 
 in the possessive case ; as, ' anybody else's servant ' ; and 
 some grammarians defend this use of the possessive case, 
 arguing that somebody else is a compound noun." It is bet- 
 ter grammar and more euphonious to consider else as being 
 an adjective, and to form the possessive by adding the 
 apostrophe and s to the word that else qualifies ; thus, any-, 
 body's else, nobody's else, somebody's else. 
 
 Anyhow. " An exceedingly vulgar phrase," says Pro- 
 fessor Mathews, in his " Words : Their Use and Abuse." 
 " Its use, in any manner, by one who professes to write 
 and speak the English tongue with purity, is unpardonable."
 
 18 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Professor Mathews seems to have a special dislike for this 
 colloquialism. It is recognized by the lexicographers, and 
 I think is generally accounted, even by the careful, per- 
 missible in conversation, though incompatible with digni- 
 fied diction. 
 
 Anxiety of Mind. See EQUANIMITY OF MIND. 
 
 Apostrophe. Turning from the person or persons to 
 whom a discourse is addressed and appealing to some 
 person or thing absent, constitutes what, in rhetoric, is 
 called the apostrophe. The following are some exam- 
 ples: 
 
 " O gentle sleep, 
 
 Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, 
 
 That thou' no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, 
 
 And steep my senses in forgetfulness ? " 
 ' Sail on, thou lone imperial bird 
 
 Of quenchless eye and tireless wing ! " 
 " Help, angels, make assay ! 
 
 Bow, stubborn knees ! and heart with strings of steel, 
 
 Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe : 
 
 All may yet be well ! " 
 Appear. See SEEM. 
 
 Appreciate. If any word in the language has cause 
 to complain of ill-treatment, this one has. Appreciate 
 means, to estimate justly to set the trtie value on men 
 or things, their worth, beauty, or advantages of any sort 
 whatsoever. Thus, an overestimate is no more appre- 
 ciation than is an underestimate ; hence it follows that such 
 expressions as, " I appreciate it, or her, or him, highly" 
 can not be correct. We value, or prize, things highly, not 
 appreciate them highly. This word is also very improperly 
 made to do service for ; i 'se, or increase, in value ; thus, ' ' Land 
 appreciates rapidly in the West." Dr. L. T. Townsend
 
 THE VERBALIST. ig 
 
 blunders in the use of appreciate in his " Art of Speech," 
 vol. i, p. 142,, thus: "The laws of harmony . . . may al- 
 low copiousness ... in parts of a discourse ... in order 
 that the condensation of other parts may be the more high- 
 ly appreciated" 
 
 Apprehend Comprehend. The English often use 
 the first of these two words where we use the second. Both 
 express an effort of the thinking faculty ; but to apprehend 
 is simply to take an idea into the mind it is the mind's 
 first effort while to comprehend is fully to understand. 
 We are dull or quick of apprehension. Children apprehend 
 much that they do not comprehend. Trench says: "We 
 apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend." 
 "Apprehend" says Crabb, "expresses the -weakest kind 
 of belief, the having [of] the least idea of the presence of 
 a thing." 
 
 Apt. Often misused for likely, and sometimes for liable. 
 " What is he apt to be doing ? " " Where shall I be apt to 
 find him?" "If properly directed, it will be apt to reach 
 me." In such sentences as these, likely is the proper word 
 to use. " If you go there, you will be apt to get into 
 trouble." Here either likely or liable is the proper word, 
 according to the thought the speaker would convey. 
 
 Arctics. See RUBBERS. 
 
 Artist. Of late years this word has been appropriated 
 by the members of so many crafts, that it has wellnigh 
 been despoiled of its meaning. Your cook, your barber, 
 your tailor, your boot-maker, and so on to satiety, are all 
 artists. Painters, sculptors, architects, actors, and singers, 
 nowadays, generally prefer being thus called, rather than 
 to be spoken of as artists. 
 
 As. " Not as I know " : read, " not that I know." 
 " This is not as good as the last " : read, " not so good."
 
 20 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " It may be complete so far as the specification is con- 
 cerned " : correctly, "as far as." 
 
 As, preceded by sue h or by same, has the force of a rela- 
 tive applying to persons or to things. " He offered me the 
 same conditions as he offered you." " The same conditions 
 that " would be equally proper. See, also, LIKE. 
 
 Ascribe. See IMPUTE. 
 
 At. Things are sold by, not at, auction. " The scene 
 is more beautiful at night than by day " : say, " by night." 
 
 At alL " It is not strange, for my uncle is King of 
 Denmark." Had Shakespeare written, " It is not at all 
 strange," it is clear that his diction would have been much 
 less forcible. " I do not wish for any at all" ; " I saw no 
 one at all " ; " If he had any desire at all to see me, he 
 would come where I am." The at all in sentences like 
 these is superfluous. Yet there are instances in which 
 the phrase is certainly a very convenient one, and seems to 
 be unobjectionable. It is much used, and by good writers. 
 
 At best. Instead of at best and at worst, we should 
 say at the best and at the worst. 
 
 At last. See AT LENGTH. 
 
 At least. This adverbial phrase is often misplaced. 
 " ' The Romans understood liberty at least as well as we.' 
 This must be interpreted to mean, ' The Romans under- 
 stood liberty as well as we understand liberty.' The in- 
 tended meaning is, ' that whatever things the Romans failed 
 to understand, they understood liberty.' To express this 
 meaning we might put it thus : ' The Romans understood 
 at Last liberty as well as we do ' ; ' liberty, at least, the 
 Romans understood as well as we do.' ' A tear, at least, is 
 due to the unhappy ' ; ' at least a tear is due to the un- 
 happy ' ; ' a tear is due at least to the unhappy ' ; ' a tear is 
 due to the unhappy at least' all express different mean-
 
 THE VERBALIST. <* ^\ 
 
 ings. ' This can not, often at least, be done ' ; ' this can not 
 be done often, at least.' (i. ' It often happens that this can 
 not be done.' 2. ' It does not often happen that this can 
 be done.') So, ' man is always capable of laughing ' ; ' man 
 is capable of laughing always.' " Bain. 
 
 At length. This phrase is often used instead of at last. 
 " At length we managed to get away": read, "at last." 
 "At length, we heard from him." To hear from any one at 
 length is to hear fully ; i. e., in detail. 
 
 Authoress. With regard to the use of this and certain 
 other words of like formation, Mr. Gould, in his "Good 
 English," says : " Poet means simply a person who writes 
 poetry ; and author, in the sense under consideration, a 
 person who writes poetry or prose not a man who writes, 
 but a person who writes. Nothing in either word indicates 
 sex ; and everybody knows that the functions of both poets 
 and authors are common to both sexes. Hence, authoress 
 and poetess are superfluous. And they are superfluous, also, 
 in another respect that they are very rarely used, indeed 
 they hardly can be used, independently of the name of the 
 writer, as Mrs., or Miss, or a female Christian name. They 
 are, besides, philological absurdities, because they are fabri- 
 cated on the false assumption that their primaries indicate 
 men. They are, moreover, liable to the charge of affecta- 
 tion and prettiness, to say nothing of pedantic pretension to 
 accuracy. 
 
 " If the ess is to be permitted, there is no reason for ex- 
 cluding it from any noun that indicates a person ; and the 
 next editions of our dictionaries may be made complete by 
 the addition of writress, officeress, manageress, superintend- 
 entess, secretaryess, treasureress, walkeress, talkeress, and so 
 on to the end of the vocabulary." 
 
 Avocation. See VOCATION.
 
 22 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Bad cold. Inasmuch as colds are never good, why say 
 a bad cold? We may talk about slight colds and severe 
 colds, but not about bad colds. 
 
 Baggage. See LUGGAGE. 
 
 Balance. This word is very frequently and very erro- 
 neously used in the sense of rest, remainder. It properly 
 means the excess of one thing over another, and in this sense 
 and in no other should it be used. Hence it is improper 
 to talk about the balance of the edition, of the evening, of 
 the money, of the toasts, of the men, etc. In such cases 
 we should say the rest or the remainder. 
 
 Barbarism. Defined as an offense against good usage, 
 by the use of an improper word, i. e., a word that is anti- 
 quated or improperly formed. Preventatire, enthuse, agri- 
 culturalist, donate, etc., are barbarisms. See also SOLECISM. 
 
 Been to. We not unfrequently hear a superfluous to 
 tacked to a sentence ; thus, " Where have you been to ? " 
 
 Beg. We often see letters begin with the words, " I 
 beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor," etc. We 
 should write, " I beg leave to acknowledge," etc. No one 
 would say, " I beg to tell you," instead of, "I beg leave to 
 tell you." 
 
 Begin Commence. These words have the same 
 meaning ; careful speakers, however, generally prefer to 
 use the former. Indeed, there is rarely any good reason 
 for giving the preference to the latter. See also COM- 
 MENCE. 
 
 Being built. See Is BEING BUILT. 
 
 Belongings. An old idiomatic expression now coming 
 into use again. 
 
 Beside Besides. In the later unabridged editions 
 of Webster's dictionary we find the following remarks con- 
 cerning the use of these two words: "Beside and besides.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 23 
 
 whether used as prepositions or adverbs, have been con- 
 sidered synonymous from an early period of our literature, 
 and have been freely interchanged by our best writers. 
 There is, however, a tendency in present usage to make 
 the following distinction between them : I. That beside be 
 used only and always as a preposition, with the original 
 meaning by t)ie side of ; as, to sit beside a fountain ; or 
 with the closely allied meaning aside from, or out of; as, 
 this is beside our present purpose : ' Paul, thou art beside 
 thyself.' The adverbial sense to be wholly transferred to 
 the cognate word. 2. That besides, as a preposition, take 
 the remaining sense, in addition to ; as, besides ail this ; 
 besides the consideration here offered : ' There was a famine 
 in the land besides the first famine.' And that it also take 
 the adverbial sense of moreover, beyond, etc., which had 
 been divided between the words ; as, besides, there are other 
 considerations which belong to this case." 
 
 Best. See AT BEST. 
 
 Between. This word is often misused for among ; thus, 
 " The word fellow, however much in use it may be between 
 men, sounds very objectionable from the lips of women." 
 " London Queen." Should be, "among men." Between is 
 used in reference to two things, parties, or persons ; among, 
 in reference to a greater number. "Castor and Pollux 
 with one soul between them." " You have among you 
 many a purchased slave." 
 
 Blame it on. Here is a gross vulgarism which we 
 sometimes hear from persons of considerable culture. They 
 use it in the sense of accuse or suspect ; thus, " He blames 
 it on his brother," meaning that he accuses or suspects his 
 brother of having done it, or of being at fault for it. 
 
 Bogus. A colloquial term incompatible with dignified 
 diction.
 
 24 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Both. We sometimes hear such absurd sentences as, 
 " They both resemble each other very much " ; " 7 hey are 
 both alike " ; " They both met in the street." Both is like- 
 wise redundant in the following sentence : " It performs at 
 the same time the offices both of the nominative and objec- 
 tive cases." 
 
 Bound. The use of this word in the sense of deter- 
 mined is not only inelegant but indefensible. " I am 
 bound to have it," should be, " I am determined to 
 have it." 
 
 Bravery Courage. The careless often use these two 
 words as though they were interchangeable. Bravery is 
 inborn, is instinctive ; courage is the product of reason, cal- 
 culation. There is much merit in being courageous, little 
 merit in being brave. Men who are simply brave are care- 
 less, while the courageous man is always cautious. Bravery 
 often degenerates into temerity. Moral cotcrage is that 
 firmness of principle which enables a man lo do what he 
 deems to be his duty, although his action may subject him 
 to adverse criticism. True moral courage is one of the 
 rarest and most admirable of virtues. 
 
 Alfred the Great, in resisting the attacks of the Danes, 
 displayed bravery / in entering their camp as a spy, he dis- 
 played courage. 
 
 Bring Fetch Carry. The indiscriminate use of 
 these three words is very common. To bring is to convey 
 to or toward a simple act ; to fetch means to go and bring 
 a compound act ; to carry often implies motion from the 
 speaker, and is followed by away or off, and thus is opposed 
 to bring and fetch. Yet one hears such expressions as, 
 "Go to Mrs. D.'s and bring\\.er this bundle ; and here, you 
 may fetch her this book also." We use the words correctly 
 thus : " fetch, or go bring, me an apple from the cellar " ;
 
 THE VERBALIST. 25 
 
 "When you come home bting some lemons " ; '' Carry this 
 book home with you." 
 
 British against American English. " The most im- 
 portant peculiarity of American English is a laxity, irregu- 
 larity, and confusion in the use of particles. The same 
 thing is, indeed, observable in England, but not to the 
 same extent, though some gross departures from idiomatic 
 propriety, such as different to for different from, are com- 
 mon in England, which none but very ignorant persons 
 would be guilty of in America. ... In the tenses of the 
 verbs, I am inclined to think that well-educated Americans 
 conform more closely to grammatical propriety than the 
 corresponding class in England. ... In general, I think 
 we may say that, in point of naked syntactical accuracy, 
 the English of America is not at all inferior to that of Eng- 
 land ; but we do not discriminate so precisely in the mean- 
 ing of words, nor do we habitually, in either conversation 
 "or in writing, express ourselves so gracefully, or employ so 
 classic a diction, as the English. Our taste in language is 
 less fastidious, and our licenses and inaccuracies are more 
 frequently of a character indicative of want of refinement 
 and elegant culture than those we hear in educated society 
 in England." George P. Marsh. 
 
 British against American Orthoepy. " The causes 
 of the differences in pronunciation [between the English 
 and the Americans] are partly physical, and therefore diffi- 
 cult, if not impossible, to resist ; and partly owing to a dif- 
 ference of circumstances. Of this latter class of influences, 
 the universality of reading in America is the most obvious 
 and important. The most marked difference is, perhaps, in 
 the length or prosodical quantity of the vowels ; and both 
 of the causes I have mentioned concur to produce this 
 effect. We are said to drawl our words by protracting the
 
 26 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 vowels and giving them a more diphthongal sound than the 
 English. Now, an Englishman who reads will habitually 
 utter his vowels more fully and distinctly than his country- 
 man who does not ; and, upon the same principle, a nation 
 of readers, like the Americans, will pronounce more delib- 
 erately and clearly than a people so large a proportion of 
 whom are unable to read, as in England. From our uni- 
 versal habit of reading, there results not only a greater dis- 
 tinctness of articulation, but a strong tendency to assimilate 
 the spoken to the written language. Thus, Americans in- 
 cline to give to every syllable of a written word a distinct 
 enunciation ; and the popular habit is to say dic-tion-ar-y, 
 mil-it-ar-y, with a secondary accent on the penultimate, in- 
 stead of sinking the third syllable, as is so common in Eng- 
 land. There is, no doubt, something disagreeably stiff in 
 an anxious and affected conformity to the very letter of or- 
 thography ; and to those accustomed to a more hurried ut- 
 terance we may seem to drawl, when we are only giving a 
 full expression to letters which, though etymologically im- 
 portant, the English habitually slur over, sputtering out, as 
 a Swedish satirist says, one half of the word, and swallow- 
 ing the other. The tendency to make the long vowels 
 diphthongal is noticed by foreigners as a peculiarity of the 
 orthoepy of our language ; and this tendency will, of course, 
 be strengthened by any cause which produces greater slow- 
 ness and fullness of articulation. Besides the influence of 
 the habit of reading, there is some reason to think that cli- 
 mate is affecting our articulation. In spite of the coldness 
 of our winters, our flora shows that the climate of even our 
 Northern States belongs, upon the whole, to a more south- 
 ern type than that of England. In southern latitudes, at 
 least within the temperate zone, articulation is generally 
 much more distinct than in the northern regions. Witness
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 27 
 
 the pronunciation of Spanish, Italian, Turkish, as compared 
 with English, Danish, and German. Participating, then, in 
 the physical influences of a southern climate, we have con- 
 tracted something of the more distinct articulation that be- 
 longs to a dry atmosphere and a clear sky. And this view 
 of the case is confirmed by the fact that the inhabitants of 
 the Southern States incline, like the people of southern 
 Europe, to throw the accent toward the end of the word, 
 and thus, like all nations that use that accentuation, bring 
 out all the syllables. This we observe very commonly in 
 the comparative Northern and Southern pronunciation of 
 proper names. I might exemplify by citing familiar in- 
 stances ; but, lest that should seem invidious, it may suffice 
 to say that, not to mention more important changes, many 
 a Northern member of " Congress goes to Washington a 
 dactyl or a trochee, and comes home an amphibrach or an 
 iambus. Why or how external physical causes, as climate 
 and modes of life, should affect pronunciation, we can not 
 say ; but it is evident that material influences of some sort 
 are producing a change in our bodily constitution, and we 
 are fast acquiring a distinct national Anglo-American type. 
 That the delicate organs of articulation should participate 
 in such tendencies is altogether natural ; and the operation 
 of the causes which give rise to them is palpable even in 
 our handwriting, which, if not uniform with itself, is gen- 
 erally, nevertheless, so unlike common English script as to 
 be readily distinguished from it. 
 
 "To the joint operation, then, of these two causes 
 universal reading and climatic influences we must ascribe 
 our habit of dwelling upon vowel and diphthongal sounds, 
 or of drawling, if that term is insisted upon. . . . But it is 
 often noticed by foreigners as both making us more readily 
 understood by them when speaking our own tongue, and as
 
 28 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 connected with a flexibility of organ, which enables us to 
 acquire a better pronunciation of other languages than is 
 usual with Englishmen. In any case, as, in spite of the 
 old adage, speech is given us that we may make ourselves 
 understood, our drawling, however prolonged, is preferable 
 to the nauseous, foggy, mumbling thickness of articulation 
 which characterizes the cockney, and is not unfrequently 
 affected by Englishmen of a better class." George P. 
 Marsh. 
 
 Bryant's Prohibited Words. See INDEX EXPURGA- 
 
 TORIUS. 
 
 But. This word is misused in various ways. " I do 
 not doubt but he will be here": read, doubt that. "I 
 should not wonder but " : read, if. " I have no doubt but 
 that he will go " : suppress but. " I do not dcubt but that 
 it is true " : suppress but. " There can be no doubt but 
 that the burglary is the work of professional cracksmen." 
 " New York Herald." Doubt tJiat, and not but that. " A 
 careful canvass leaves no doubt but that the nomination," 
 etc. : suppress but. " There is no reasonable doubt but 
 that it is all it professes to be " : suppress but. " The 
 mind no sooner entertains any proposition but it presently 
 hastens," etc. : read, than. " No other resource but this 
 was allowed him " : read, than. 
 
 By. See AT. 
 
 Calculate. This word means to ascertain by computa- 
 tion, to reckon, to estimate ; and, say some of the purists, it 
 never means anything else when properly used. If this is 
 true, we can not say a thing is calculated to do harm, but 
 must, if we are ambitious to have our English irreproach- 
 able, choose some other form of expression, or at least some 
 other word, likely or apt, for example. Cobbett, however, 
 says, " That, to Her, whose great example is so well cal-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 29 
 
 culated to inspire," etc. ; and, " The first two of the three 
 sentences are well enough calculated for ushering," etc. 
 Calculate is sometimes vulgarly used for intend, purpose, 
 expect ; as, " He calculates to get off to-morrow." 
 
 Caliber. This word is sometimes used very absurdly ; 
 as, " Brown's Essays are of a much higher caliber than 
 Smith's." It is plain that the proper word to use here is 
 order. 
 
 Cant. Cant is a kind of affectation ; affectation is an 
 effort to sail under false colors ; an effort to sail under false 
 colors is a kind of falsehood ; and falsehood is a term of 
 Latin origin which we often use instead of the stronger 
 Saxon term LYING ! 
 
 " Who is not familiar," writes Dr. William Matthews, 
 " with scores of pet phrases and cant terms which are re- 
 peated at this day apparently without a thought of their 
 meaning? Who ever attended a missionary meeting 
 without hearing ' the Macedonian cry,' and an account of 
 some ' little interest ' and ' fields white for the harvest ' ? 
 Who is not weary of the ding-dong of ' our Zion," and the 
 solecism of ' in our midst ' ; and who does not long for a 
 verbal millennium when Christians shall no longer ' feel to 
 take ' and ' grant to give ' ? " 
 
 "How much I regret," says Coleridge, " that so many 
 religious persons of the present day think it necessary to 
 adopt a certain cant of manner and phraseology [and of 
 tone of voice] as a token to each other [one another] ! 
 They improve this and that text, and they must do so and 
 so in a prayerful way ; and so on." 
 
 Capacity. See ABILITY. 
 
 Caption. This word is often used for heading, but, thus 
 used, it is condemned by careful writers. The true mean- 
 ing of caption is a seizure, an arrest. It does not come from
 
 3 o THE VERBALIST. 
 
 a Latin word meaning a head, but from a Latin word mean- 
 ing to seize. 
 
 Caret. Cobbett writes of the caret to his son : " The 
 last thing I shall mention under this head is the caret [ A ], 
 which is used to point upward to a part which has been 
 omitted, and which is inserted between the line where the 
 caret is placed and the line above it. Things should be called 
 by their right names, and this should be called the blunder- 
 mark. I would have you, my dear James, scorn the use of 
 the thing. Think before you write ; let it be your custom 
 to -wtite correctly and in & plain hand. Be careful that neat- 
 ness, grammar, and sense prevail when you write to a 
 blacksmith about shoeing a horse as when you write on the 
 most important subjects. .Habit is powerful in all cases; 
 but its power in this case is truly wonderful. When you 
 write, bear constantly in mind that some one is to read and 
 to understa nd what you write. This will make your hand- 
 writing and also your meaning plain. Far, I hope, from 
 my dear James will be the ridiculous, the contemptible 
 affectation of writing in a slovenly or illegible hand, or that 
 of signing his name otherwise than in plain letters." 
 
 Carry. See BRING. 
 
 Case. Many persons of considerable culture continu- 
 ally make mistakes in conversation in the use of the cases, 
 and we sometimes meet with gross errors of this kind in 
 the writings of authors of repute. Witness the following : 
 " And everybody is to know him except /." George Meri- 
 deth in "The Tragic Comedies," Eng. eel., vol. i, p. 33. 
 " Let's you and / go " : say, me. We can not say, Let 1 
 go. Properly, Let's go, i. e., let us go, or, let you and me 
 go. " He is as good as me " : say, as /. " She is as tall as 
 Aim " : say, as he. " You are older than me " : say, than 7. 
 " Nobody said so but he " : say, but Aim. " Every one can
 
 THE VERBALIST. 31 
 
 master a grief but he that hath it " : correctly, but him. 
 "John went out with James and /" : say, and me. " You 
 are stronger than him " : say, than he. " Between you 
 and /": say, and me. "Between you and they": say, 
 and them. "He gave it to John and /": say, and me. 
 "You told John and /": say, and me. "He sat be- 
 tween him and /" : say, and me. " He expects to see 
 you and /" : say, and me. " You were a dunce to do 
 it. Who? me?" say, /. Supply the ellipsis, and we 
 should have, Who ? me a dunce to do it ? " Where are 
 you going? Who? me?" say, 7. We can't say, me going. 
 " Who do you mean?" say, whom. " Was it them?" say, 
 they. "If I was him, I would do it " : say, were he. " If 
 I was her, I would not go " : say, were she. " Was it him ? " 
 say, he. " Was it her? " say, she. " For the benefit of those 
 whom he thought were his friends " : say, who. This error 
 is not easy to detect on account of the parenthetical words 
 that follow it. If we drop them, the mistake is very ap- 
 parent ; thus, "For the benefit of those whom were his 
 friends." 
 
 "On the supposition," says Bain, "that the interroga- 
 tive who has whom for its objective, the following are er- 
 rors : ' who do you take me to be ? ' ' who should I meet 
 the other day ? ' ' who is it by ?' ' who did you give it to ? ' 
 ' who to ? ' ' who for ? ' But, considering that these expres- 
 sions occur with the best writers and speakers, that they are 
 more energetic than the other form, and that they lead to 
 no ambiguity, it may be doubted whether grammarians 
 have not exceeded their province in condemning them." 
 
 Cobbett, in writing of the pronouns, says : " When the 
 
 relatives are placed in the sentence at a distance from their 
 
 antecedents or verbs or prepositions, the ear gives us no 
 
 assistance. ' Who, of all the men in the world, do you 
 
 3
 
 32 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 think I saw to-day ? ' ' Who, for the sake of numerous ser- 
 vices, the office was given to.' In both these cases it 
 should be whom. Bring the verb in the first and the prep- 
 osition in the second case closer to the relative, as, who 1 
 saw, to -who the office was given, and you see the error at 
 Once. But take care ! ' Whom, of all the men in the world, 
 do you think, was chosen to be sent as an ambassador? 1 
 ' Whom, for the sake of his numerous services, had an 
 office of honor bestowed upon him.' These are nominative 
 cases, and ought to have who; that is to say, who was 
 chosen, who had an office." 
 
 " Most grammarians," says Dr. Bain, in his " Higher 
 English Grammar," "have laid down this rule : ' The verb to 
 be has the same case after as before it.' Macaulay censures 
 the following as a solecism : ' It was him that Horace Wai- 
 pole called a man who never made a bad figure but as an 
 author.' Thackeray similarly adverts to the same deviation 
 from the rule : ' " Is that him ? " said the lady in question- 
 able grammar' But, notwithstanding this," continues Dr. 
 Bain, " we certainly hear in the actual speech of all classes 
 of society such expressions as ' it was me,' ' it was him,' * it 
 was her,' more frequently than the prescribed form.* ' This 
 shy creature, my brother says, is me' ; 'were it me, I'd show 
 him the difference.' Clarissa Harlowe. ' It is not me\ you 
 are in love with.' Addison. 'If there is one character 
 more base than another, it is him who,' etc. Sydney Smith. 
 ' If I were him' ; 'if I had been her,' etc. The authority 
 of good writers is strong on the side of objective forms. 
 
 * If this is true in England, it is not true in America. Nowhere in 
 the United States is such "questionable grammar" as this frequently 
 heard in cultivated circles. 
 
 t " It may be confidently affirmed that with good speakers, in the 
 case of negation, not me is the usual practice." Bain. This, I confi- 
 dently affirm, is not true in America. A. A.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 33 
 
 There is also the analogy of the French language ; for while 
 I am here ' is je suis id, the answer to ' who is there ? ' is 
 mot (me) ; and ccst moi (it is me) is the legitimate phrase 
 never cestje (it is I)." 
 
 But moi, according to all French grammarians, is very 
 often in the nominative case. Moi is in the nominative 
 case when used in reply to " Who is there ? " and also in 
 the phrase " C'est moi," which makes " It is /" the correct 
 translation of the phrase, and not " It is me" The French 
 equivalent of " I ! I am here," is " Moi ! je suis ici." The 
 Frenchman uses moi in the nominative case when je would 
 be inharmonious. Euphony with him is a matter of more 
 importance than grammatical correctness. Bescherelle 
 gives many examples of moi in the nominative. Here are 
 two of them : " Mon avocat et moi sommes de cet avis. 
 Qui veut aller avec lui ? Moi." If we use such phraseology 
 as "It is me" we must do as the French do consider me 
 as being in the nominative case, and offer euphony as our 
 reason for thus using it. 
 
 When shall we put nouns (or pronouns) preceding verbal, 
 or participial, nouns, as they are called by some grammari- 
 ans infinitives in ing, as they are called by others in the 
 possessive case ? 
 
 " ' I am surprised at John's (or his, your, etc.) refusing 
 to go.' ' I am surprised at John (or him, you, etc.) refus- 
 ing to go.' [In the latter sentence refusing is a participle.] 
 The latter construction is not so common with pronouns as 
 with nouns, especially with such nouns as do not readily 
 take the possessive form. ' They prevented him going for- 
 ward ' : better, ' They prevented his going forward.' ' He 
 was dismissed without any reason being assigned.' 'The 
 boy died through his clothes being burned.* ' We hear little 
 of any connection being kept up between the two nations.'
 
 34 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 1 The men rowed vigorously for fear of the tide turning 
 against us.' But most examples of the construction uithout 
 the possessive form are OBVIOUSLY DUE TO MERE SLOVEN- 
 LINESS. . . . ' In case of your being absent ' : here being is 
 an infinitive [verbal, or participial, noun] qualified by the 
 possessive your. 'In case of you being present': heie 
 being would have to be construed as a participle. The pos- 
 sessive construction is, in this case, the primitive and regu~ 
 lar construction ; THE OTHER is A MERE LAPSE. The 
 difficulty of adhering to the possessive form occurs when the 
 subject is not a person : ' It does not seem safe to rely on 
 the rule of demand creating supply ' : in strictness, ' De- 
 mand's creating supply.' ' A petition was presented 
 against the license being granted.' But for the awkward- 
 ness of extending the possessive to impersonal subjects, it 
 would be right to say, ' against the license's being grant- 
 ed.' ' He had conducted the ball without any complaint 
 being urged against him.' The possessive would be suit- 
 able, but undesirable and unnecessary." Professor Alex- 
 ander Bain. 
 
 " Though the ordinary syntax of the possessive case is 
 sufficiently plain and easy, there is, perhaps, among all the 
 puzzling and disputable points of grammar, nothing more 
 difficult of decision than are some questions that occur re- 
 specting the right management of this case. The observa- 
 tions that have been made show that possessives before 
 participles are seldom to be approved. The following ex- 
 ample is manifestly inconsistent with itself ; and, in my 
 opinion, the three possessives are all wrong : ' The kitch- 
 en, too, now begins to give dreadful note of preparation ; 
 not from armorers accomplishing the knights, but from the 
 shopmaid's chopping force-meat, the apprentice 's cleaning 
 knives, and the journeyman s receiving a practical lesson in
 
 THE VERBALIST. 35 
 
 the art of waiting at table.' ' The daily instances of men's 
 dying around us." Say rather, ' Of men dying around us.' 
 The leading word in sense ought not to be made the ad- 
 junct in construction." Goold Brown. 
 
 Casualty. This word is often heard with the incorrect 
 addition of a syllable, casuality, which is not recognized 
 by the lexicographers. Some writers object to the word 
 casualty, and always use its synonym accident. 
 
 Celebrity. " A number of celebrities witnessed the 
 first representation." This word is frequently used, es- 
 pecially in the newspapers, as a concrete term ; but it 
 would be better to use it in its abstract sense only, 
 and in sentences like the one above to say distinguished 
 persons. 
 
 Character Reputation. These two words are not 
 synonyms, though often used as such. Character means 
 the sum of distinguishing qualities. " Actions, looks, 
 words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell 
 characters." Lavater. Reputation means the estimation 
 in which one is held. One's reputation, then, is what is 
 thought of one's character ; consequently, one may have a 
 good reputation and a bad character, or a good character 
 and a bad reputation. Calumny may injure reputation, but 
 not character. Sir -Peter does not leave his character be- 
 hind him, but his reputation his good name. 
 
 Cheap. The dictionaries define this adjective as mean- 
 ing, bearing a low price, or to be had at a low price ; but 
 nowadays good usage makes it mean that a thing may be 
 had, or has been sold, at a bargain. Hence, in order to 
 make sure of being understood, it is better to say low-priced, 
 when one means low-priced, than to use the word cheap~ 
 What is low-priced, as everybody knows, is often dear, and 
 what is high-priced is often cheap, A diamond necklace
 
 36 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 might be cheap at ten thousand dollars, and a pinchbeck 
 necklace dear at ten dollars. 
 
 Cherubim. The Hebrew plural of cherub. " We are 
 authorized," says Dr. Campbell, " both by use and analogy, 
 to say either cherubs and seraphs, according to the English 
 idiom, or cherubim and seraphim, according to the Oriental. 
 The former suits better the familiar, the latter the solemn, 
 style. As the words cherubim and seraphim are plural, the 
 terms cherubims and seraphims, as expressing the plural, are 
 quite improper." " Philosophy of Rhetoric." 
 
 Citizen. This word properly means one who has cer- 
 tain political rights ; when, therefore, it is used, as it often 
 is, to designate persons who may be aliens, it, to say the 
 least, betrays a want of care in the selection of words. 
 " Several citizens were injured by the explosion." Here 
 some other word persons, for example should be used. 
 
 Clever. In this country the word clever is most im- 
 properly used in the sense of good-natured, well-disposed, 
 good-hearted. It is properly used in the sense in which 
 we are wont most inelegantly to use the word smart, though 
 it is a less colloquial term, and is of wider application. In 
 England the phrase " a clever man " is the equivalent of the 
 French phrase, " un homme a" esprit" The word is prop- 
 erly used in the following sentences : " Every work of Arch- 
 bishop Whately must be an object of interest to the ad- 
 mirers of clever reasoning"; " Cobbett's letter . . . very 
 clever, but very mischievous " ; " Bonaparte was certainly as 
 clever a man as ever lived." 
 
 Climax. A clause, a sentence, a paragraph, or any lit- 
 erary composition whatsoever, is said to end with a climax 
 when, by an artistic arrangement, the more effective is 
 made to follow the less effective in regular gradation. 
 Any great departure from the order of ascending strength
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 37 
 
 is called an anti-climax. Here are some examples of cli- 
 max : 
 
 " Give all diligence ; add to your faith, virtue ; and to 
 virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to 
 temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to 
 godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, 
 charity." 
 
 " What is every year of a wise man's life but a criticism 
 on the past ! Those whose life is the shortest live long 
 enough to laugh at one half of it ; the boy despises the in- 
 fant, the man the boy, the sage both, and the Christian 
 all." 
 
 " What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason ! 
 how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving, how express 
 and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in apprehen- 
 sion, how like a god ! " 
 
 Co. The prefix co should be used only when the word 
 to which it is joined begins with a vowel, as in co-evaL, co- 
 incident, co-operate, etc. Con is used when the word begins 
 with a consonant, as in con-temporary, con-junction, etc. 
 Co-partner is an exception to the rule. 
 
 Commence. The Britons use or misuse this word in 
 a manner peculiar to themselves. They say, for example, 
 " commenced merchant," " commenced actor," " commenced 
 politician," and so on. Dr. Hall tells us that commence has 
 been employed in the sense of " begin to be," " become," 
 " set up as," by first-class writers, for more than two cen- 
 turies. Careful speakers make small use of commence in any 
 sense ; they prefer to use its Saxon equivalent, begin. See, 
 also, BEGIN. 
 
 Comparison. When only two objects are compared, 
 the comparative and not the superlative degree should be 
 used ; thus, " Mary is the older of the two " ; " John is the
 
 38 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 stronger of the two " ; " Brown is the richer of the two, and 
 the richest man in the city " ; " Which is the more desir- 
 able, health or wealth ? " " Which is the most desirable, 
 health, wealth, or genius?" 
 
 " Of two such lessons, why forget 
 The nobler and the manlier one ? " 
 
 Completed. This word is often incorrectly used for 
 finished. That is complete which lacks nothing ; that is 
 finished which has had all done to it that was intended. 
 The builder of a house may finish it and yet leave it very 
 incomplete. 
 
 Condign. It is safe to say that most of those who 
 use this word do not know its meaning, which is, suitable, 
 deserved, merited, proper. " His endeavors shall not lack 
 condign praise " ; i. e., his endeavors shall not lack proper 
 or their merited praise. " A villain condignly punished" is 
 a villain punished according to his deserts. To use con- 
 dign in the sense of severe is just as incorrect as it would 
 be to use deserved or merited in the sense of severe. 
 
 Confirmed Invalid. This phrase is a convenient mode 
 of expressing the idea it conveys, but it is difficult to de- 
 fend, inasmuch as confirmed means strengthened, estab- 
 lished. 
 
 Consequence. This word is sometimes used instead 
 of importance or moment ; as, ' ' They were all persons of 
 more or less consequence " : read, " of more or less impor- 
 tance." " It is a matter of no consequence " : read, "of no 
 moment" 
 
 Consider. " This word," says Mr. Richard Grant 
 White, in his "Words and Their Uses," "is perverted 
 from its true meaning by most of those who use it." Con- 
 sider means, to meditate, to deliberate, to reflect, to re- 
 volve in the mind ; and yet it is made to do service foi
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 39 
 
 think, suppose, and regard. Thus : " I consider his course 
 very unjustifiable " ; "I have always considered it my duty," 
 etc. ; " I consider him as being the cleverest man of my 
 acquaintance." 
 
 Contemptible. This word is sometimes used for con- 
 temptuous. An old story says that a man once said to Dr. 
 Parr, " Sir, I have a contemptible opinion of you." " That 
 does not surprise me," returned the Doctor; "all your 
 opinions are contemptible" What is worthless or weak is 
 contemptible. Despicable is a word that expresses a still 
 more intense degree of the contemptible. A traitor is a 
 despicable character, while a poltroon is only contemptible, 
 
 Continually. See PERPETUALLY. 
 
 Continue on. The on in this phrase is generally super- 
 fluous. " We continued on our way " is idiomatic English, 
 and is more euphonious than the sentence would be with- 
 out the particle. The meaning is, " We continued to travel 
 on our way." In such sentences, however, as " Continue 
 on" "He continued to read on" "The fever continued 
 on for some hours," and the like, the on generally serves 
 no purpose. 
 
 Conversationist. This word is to be preferred to 
 conversationalist. Mr. Richard Grant White says that con- 
 versationalist and agriciilturalist are inadmissible. On the 
 other hand, Dr. Fitzedward Hall says: "As for conversa- 
 tionist and conversationalist, agricultioist and agi icultural- 
 ist, as all are alike legitimate formations, it is for conven- 
 tion to decide which we are to prefer. 
 
 Convoke Convene. At one time and another there 
 has been some discussion with regard to the correct use of 
 these two words. According to Crabb, " There is nothing 
 imperative on the part of those that assemble, or convene, 
 and nothing binding on those assembled, or convened : one
 
 4.0 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 assembles, or convenes, by invitation or request ; one attends 
 to the notice or not, at pleasure. Convoke, on the other 
 hand, is an act of authority ; it is the call of one who has 
 the authority to give the call ; it is heeded by those who 
 feel themselves bound to attend." Properly, then, Presi- 
 dent Arthur convokes, not convenes, the Senate. 
 
 Corporeal Corporal. These adjectives, though re- 
 garded as synonyms, are not used indiscriminately. Cor- 
 poral is used in reference to the body, or animal frame, in 
 its proper sense ; corporeal, to the animal substance in an 
 extended sense opposed to spiritual. Corporal punish- 
 ment ; corporeal or matetialiorm. or substance. 
 
 " That to corporeal substances could add 
 
 Speed most spiritual." Milton. 
 " What seemed corporal 
 Melted as breath into the wind." Shakespeare. 
 
 Couple. In its primitive signification, this word does 
 not mean simply two, but two that are united by some 
 bond ; such as, for example, the tie that unites the sexes. 
 It has, however, been so long used to mean two of a kind 
 considered together, that in this sense it may be deemed 
 permissible, though the substitution of the word two for it 
 would often materially improve the diction. 
 
 Courage. See BRAVERY. 
 
 Crime Vice Sin. The confusion that exists in the 
 use of these words is due largely to an imperfect under- 
 standing of their respective meanings. Ctime is the viola- 
 tion of the law of a state ; hence, as the laws of states differ, 
 what is crime in one state may not be crime in another. 
 Vice is a course of wrong-doing, and is not modified either 
 by country, religion, or condition. As for sin, it is very 
 difficult to define what it is, as what is sinful in the eyes of 
 one man may not be sinful in the eyes of another ; what is
 
 THE VERBALIST. 4 i 
 
 sinful in the eyes of a Jew may not be sinful in the eyes of 
 a Christian ; and what is sinful in the eyes of a Christian of 
 one country may not be sinful in the eyes of a Christian of 
 another country. In the days of slavery, to harbor a run- 
 away slave was a crime, but it was, in the eyes of most peo- 
 ple, neither a vice nor a sin. 
 
 Crushed out. " The rebellion was finally crushed out." 
 Out of what? We may crush the life out of a man, or 
 crush a man to death, and crush, not crush out, a rebel- 
 lion. 
 
 Cultured. This word is said to be a product of Bos- 
 ton an excellent place for anybody or anything to come 
 from. Many persons object to its use on the ground that 
 there can be no such participial adjective, because there is 
 no verb in use from which to form it. We have in use 
 the substantive culture, but, though the dictionaries recog- 
 nize the verb to culttire, we do not use it. Be this objec- 
 tion valid or be it not, cultured having but two sylla- 
 bles, while its synonym cultivated has four, it is likely 
 to find favor with those who employ short words when 
 they convey their meaning as well as long ones. Other 
 adjectives of this kind are, moneyed, whiskered, slippered, 
 lettered, talented, cottaged, lilied, anguished, gifted, and 
 so forth. 
 
 Curious. This word is often used instead of strange 
 or remarkable. " A curious fact " : better, " a remarkable 
 fact." " A curious proceeding": better, " a strange pro- 
 ceeding." 
 
 Dangerous. " He is pretty sick, but not dangerous." 
 Dangerous people are generally most dangerous when they 
 are most vigorous. Say, rather, " He is sick, but not in 
 danger." 
 
 Dearest. "A gentleman once began a letter to his
 
 4.2 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 bride thus : ' My dearest Maria.' The lady replied : ; My 
 dear John, I beg that you will mend either your morals or 
 your grammar. You call me your " dearest Maria " ; am I 
 to understand that you have other Marias ' ? " Moon's 
 " Bad English." 
 
 Deceiving. " You are deceiving me." Not unfrequent- 
 ly deceiving is used when the speaker means trying to de- 
 ceive. It is when we do not suspect deception that we are 
 deceived. 
 
 Decimate. This word, meaning as it properly does to 
 tithe, to take the tenth part, is hardly permissible in the 
 sense in which it is used in such sentences as, " The regi- 
 ment held its position, though terribly decimated by the 
 enemy's artillery." "Though terribly tithed" would be 
 equally correct. 
 
 Demean. This word is sometimes erroneously used in 
 the sense of to debase, to disgrace, to Immble. It is a re- 
 flexive verb, and its true meaning is to behave, to carry, to 
 conduct; as, "He demeans himself in a gentlemanly man- 
 ner," i. e., He behaves, or carries, or conducts, himself in a 
 gentlemanly manner. 
 
 Denude. "The vulture," says Brande, "has some 
 part of the head and sometimes of the neck denuded of 
 feathers." Most birds might be demided of the feathers on 
 their heads ; not so, however, the vulture, for his head is 
 always featherless. A thing can not be demided of what 
 it does not have. Denuding a vulture's head and neck of 
 the feathers is like denuding an eel of its scales. 
 
 Deprecate. Strangely enough, this word is often 
 used in the sense of disapprove, censure, condemn ; as, 
 " He deprecates the whole proceeding '' ; " Your course, 
 from first to last, is universally deprecated" But, according 
 to the authorities, the word really means, to endeavor to
 
 THE VERBALIST. 43 
 
 avert by prayer ; to pray exemption or deliverance from ; 
 to beg off; to entreat ; to urge against. 
 
 " Daniel kneeled upon his knees to deprecate the cap- 
 tivity of his people." Hewyt. 
 
 Despite. This word is often incorrectly preceded by 
 in and followed by of ; thus, "/ despite of all our efforts 
 to detain him, he set out" ; which should be, " Despite all 
 our efforts," etc., or " In spite of all our efforts," etc. 
 
 Determined. See BOUND. 
 
 Diction. This is a general term, and is applicable to 
 a single sentence or to a connected composition. Bad dic- 
 tion may be due to errors in grammar, to a confused dispo- 
 sition of words, or to an improper use of words. Diction, 
 to be good, requires to be only correct and clear. Of ex- 
 cellent examples of bad diction there are very many in 
 a little work by Dr. L. T. Townsend, Professor of Sacred 
 Rhetoric in Boston University, the first volume of which 
 has lately come under my notice. The first ten lines of 
 Dr. Townsend's preface are : 
 
 " The leading genius ' of the People's College at Chau- 
 tauqua Lake, with a [the ?] view of providing for his course 2 
 a text-book, asked for the publication of the following laws 
 and principles of speech. 1 
 
 " The author, not seeing sufficient reason 4 for withhold- 
 ing what had been of much practical benefit 5 to himself, 
 consented. 6 
 
 " The subject-matter herein contained is an outgrowth 
 from 7 occasional instructions 8 given 9 while occupying the 
 chair 10 of Sacred Rhetoric." 
 
 I. The phrase leading genius is badly chosen. Founder, 
 projector, head, organizer, principal, or president some one 
 of these terms would probably have been appropriate. 2. 
 What course? Race-course, course of ethics, aesthetics,
 
 44 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 rhetoric, or what ?* 3. " The following laws and principles 
 of speech." And how came these laws and principles in 
 existence? Who made them? We are to infer, it would 
 seem, that Professor Townsend made them, and that the 
 world would have had to go without the laws that govern 
 language and the principles on which langu?ge is formed 
 had it pleased Professor Townsend to withhold them. 4. 
 " Sufficient reason" ! Then there were reasons why Pro- 
 fessor Townsend ought to have kept these good things all 
 to himself ; only, they were not sufficient. 5. " Practical 
 benefit " ! Is there any such thing as impractical bene- 
 fit? Are not all benefits practical ? and, if they are, what 
 purpose does the epithet practical serve ? 6. Consented 
 to what? It is easy to see that the Doctor means ac- 
 ceded to the request, but he is a long way from saying 
 so. The object writers usually have in view is to convey 
 thought, not to set their readers to guessing. 7. The 
 otitgrowth of would be English. 8. " Occasional instruc- 
 tions " ! Very vague, and well calculated to set the reader 
 to guessing again. 9. Given to whom ? 10. " The chair." 
 The definite article made it necessary for the writer to 
 specify what particular chair of Sacred Rhetoric he meant. 
 
 These ten lines are a fair specimen of the diction of the 
 entire volume. 
 
 Page 131. "To render a given ambiguous or unintel- 
 ligible sentence transparent, the following suggestions are 
 recommended." The words in italics are unnecessary, 
 'since what is ambiguous is unintelligible. Then who has 
 ever heard of recommending suggestions ? 
 
 Dr. Townsend speaks of mastei ing a subject before pub- 
 lishing it. Publishing a subject ? 
 
 * Should be, a text-book for his course, and not,_/iv- kis course a 
 text-book.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 45 
 
 Page 133. " Violations of simplicity, whatever the 
 type, show either that the mind of the writer is tainted with 
 affectation, or else that an effort is making to conceal con- 
 scious poverty of sentiment under loftiness of expression." 
 Here is an example of a kind of sentence that can be 
 mended in only one way by rewriting, which might be 
 done thus : Violations of simplicity, whatever the type, 
 show either that the writer is tainted with affectation, or 
 that he is making an effort to conceal poverty of thought 
 under loftiness of expression. 
 
 Page 143. " This quality is fully stated and recom- 
 mended," etc. Who has ever heard of stating a quality? 
 
 On page 145 Dr. Townsend says: "A person can not 
 read a single book of poor style without having his own 
 style vitiated." A book of poor style is an awkward ex- 
 pression, to say the least. A single badly-written book would 
 have been unobjectionable. 
 
 Page 160. "The presented picture produces instant- 
 ly a definite effect." Why this unusual disposition of 
 words? Why not say, in accordance with the idiom of 
 the language, " The picture presented instantly produces," 
 etc.? 
 
 Page 161. " The boy studies . . . geography and hates 
 everything connected with the sea and land." Why the 
 boy ? As there are few things besides seals and turtles that 
 are connected with the sea and land, the boy in question 
 has few things to hate. 
 
 On page 175, Dr. Townsend heads a chapter thus : 
 " Art of acquiring Skill in the use of Poetic Speech." 
 This reminds one of the man who tried to lift himself over 
 a fence by taking hold of the seat of his breeches. " How 
 lo acquire skill " is probably what is meant. 
 
 On page 232, " Jeremy Taylor is among the best
 
 4.6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 models of long sentences which are both clear and logical." 
 Jeremy Taylor is a clear and logical long sentence ? ! True, 
 our learned rhetorician says so, but he doesn't mean it. 
 He means, "In Jeremy Taylor we find some of the best 
 examples of long sentences which are at once clear and 
 logical." 
 
 Since the foregoing was written, the second volume of 
 Professor Townsend's " Art of Speech " has been published. 
 In the brief preface to this volume we find this character- 
 istic sentence : " The author has felt that clergymen more 
 than those of other professions will study this treatise." 
 The antecedent of the relative those being clergymen, the 
 sentence, it will be perceived, says : " The author has felt 
 that clergymen more than clergymen of other professions will 
 study this treatise." Comment on such "art " as Professor 
 Townsend's is not necessary. 
 
 I find several noteworthy examples of bad diction in an 
 article in a recent number of an Australian magazine. The 
 following are some of them : " Large capital always man- 
 ages to make itself master of the situation ; it is the small 
 capitalist and the small landholder that would suffer," 
 etc. Should be, " The large capitalist , . . himself" etc. 
 Again: " The small farmer would . . . be despoiled . . . 
 of the meager profit which strenuous labor had conquered 
 from the reluctant soil." Not only are the epithets in 
 italics superfluous, and consequently weakening in their 
 effect, but idiom does not permit strenuous to be used to 
 qualify labor: hard labor and strenuous effort. Again: 
 " Capital has always the choice of a large field." Should 
 be, " the choice offered by a large field." Again : " Should 
 capital be withdrawn, tenements would soon prove insuf- 
 ficient." Should be, " the number of tenements would," etc. 
 Again : " Men of wealth, therefore, would find their Fifth
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 47 
 
 Avenue mansions and their summer villas a little more 
 burdened with taxes, but with this increase happily bal- 
 anced by the exemption of their bonds and mortgages, their 
 plate and furniture." The thought here is so simple that 
 we easily divine it ; but, if we look at the sentence at all 
 carefully, we find that, though we supply the ellipses in the 
 most charitable manner possible, the sentence really says : 
 " Men would find their mansions more burdened, but would 
 find them with this increased burden happily balanced by 
 the exemption," etc. The sentence should have been framed 
 somewhat in this wise : " Men . . . would find their . . . 
 mansions . . . more burdened with taxes, but this increase 
 in the taxes on their real estate would be happily balanced 
 by the exemption from taxation of their bonds, mortgages, 
 plate, and furniture." Again : " Men generally . . . would 
 be inclined to laugh at the idea of intrusting the modern 
 politician with such gigantic opportunities for enriching his 
 favorites." We do not intrust one another with opportuni- 
 ties. To enrich would better the diction. Again : " The 
 value of land that has accrued from labor is not . . . a just 
 object for confiscation." Correctly : " The value of land 
 that has resulted horn, labor is notjus/fy ... an object of 
 confiscation." Accnte is properly used more in the sense of 
 spontaneous growth. Again : " If the state attempts to con- 
 fiscate this increase by means of taxes, either rentals will 
 increase correspondingly, or such a check will be put upon 
 the growth of 'each place and all the enterprises connected with 
 it that greater injury would be done than if things had been 
 left untouched." We have here, it will be observed, a con- 
 fusion of moods; the sentence begins in the indicative and 
 ends in the conditional. The words in italics are worse 
 than superfluous. Rewritten : " If the state should attempt 
 to confiscate this increase by means of taxes, either rentals
 
 48 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 would increase correspondingly, or such a check would be 
 put upon growth and enterprise that greater injury would," 
 etc. Again : " The theory that land ... is a boon of Na- 
 ture, to which every person has an inalienable rght equal 
 to every other person, is not new." The words theory and 
 boon are here misused. A theory is a system of suppositions. 
 The things man receives from Nature are gifts, not boons : 
 the gift of reason, the gift of speech, etc. The sentence 
 should be : " The declaration (or assertion} that land ... is 
 a gift of Nature, to which every person has an inalienable 
 right equal to that of any other person, is not new." Or, 
 more simply and quite as forcibly : "... to which one per- 
 son has an inalienable right equal to that of another, is not 
 new." Or, more simply still, and more forcibly : "... to 
 which one man has as good a right as another, is not new." 
 By substituting the word man for person, we have a word 
 of one syllable that expresses, in this connection, all that 
 the longer word expresses. The fewer the syllables, if the 
 thought be fully expressed, the more vigorous the diction. 
 Inalienability being foreign to the discussion, the long word 
 inalienable only encumbers the sentence. 
 
 " We have thus ' passed in review 2 the changes and im- 
 provements 3 which the revision contains 4 in the First Epis- 
 tle to the Corinthians. It has 5 not, indeed/ 5 been possible 
 to refer to 7 them all ; but so many illustrations 8 have been 
 given in 9 the several classes described that the reader will 
 have 10 a satisfactory 11 survey of the whole subject. What- 
 ever may be said of other portions 12 of the New Testa- 
 ment, we think it will be generally admitted that in this 
 Epistle the changes have improved the old 13 translation. 
 They are such as 14 make the English version 15 conform 
 more completely 16 to the Greek original. If this be n true, 
 the revisers have done a good work for the Church. 18 If it
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 49 
 
 be true I9 with regard to all the New Testament books, the 
 work which they have done will remain 20 a blessing to the 
 readers of those books for ' 21 generations to come. But the 
 blessing will be only in the clearer presentation of the Divine 
 truth, and, therefore, it will be only to the glory of God." 
 
 This astonishingly slipshod bit of composition is from 
 the pen of the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight. If the learned 
 Professor of Divinity in Yale College deemed it worth while 
 to give a little thought to manner as well as to matter, it is 
 probable that his diction would be very different from what 
 it is ; and, if he were to give a few minutes to the making 
 of verbal corrections in the foregoing paragraph, he would, 
 perhaps, do something like this: i, change thus to now ; 2, 
 write some of the changes ; 3, strike out and improvements ; 
 4, for contains changes substitute some other form of expres- 
 sion ; 5, instead of has been, write was; 6, strike out in- 
 deed; 7, instead of refer to, write cite ; 8, change illustra- 
 tions to examples ; 9, instead of in, write of; 10, instead 
 of the reader -will have, write the reader will be able to get ; 
 II, change satisfactory to tolerable ; 12, change portions to 
 parts; 13, not talk of the old translation, as we have no 
 new one ; 14, strike out as superfluous the words are such 
 as ; 15, change version to text ; 16, substitute nearly foi 
 completely, which does not admit of comparison ; 17, substi- 
 tute the indicative for the conditional ; 18, end sentence 
 with the word work; 19, introduce also after be; 20, in- 
 stead of remain, in the sense of be, use be ; 21, introduce 
 the after for. As for the last sentence, it reminds one of 
 Mendelssohn's " Songs without Words," though here we 
 have, instead of a song and no words, words and no song, 
 or rather no meaning. As is often true of cant, we have 
 here simply a syntactical arrangement of words signifying 
 nothing.
 
 5 o THE VERBALIST. 
 
 If Professor Dwight were of those who, in common 
 with the Addisons and Macaulays and Newmans, think it 
 worth while to give some attention to diction, the thought 
 conveyed in the paragraph under consideration would, per- 
 haps, have been expressed somewhat in this wise : 
 
 " We have now passed in review some of the changes 
 that, in the revision, have been made in the First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians. It was not possible to cite them all, 
 rjut a sufficient number of examples of the several classes 
 described have been given to enable the reader to get a tol- 
 erable survey of the whole subject. Whatever may be said 
 of the other parts of the New Testament, we think it will 
 be generally admitted that in this Epistle the changes have 
 improved the translation. They make the English text 
 conform more nearly to the Greek. This being true, the 
 revisers have done a good work ; and, if it be also true with 
 regard to all the New Testament books, the work which 
 they have done will be a blessing to the readers of these 
 books for the generations to come." 
 
 Die 'with. Man and brute die of, and not with, fevers, 
 consumption, the plague, pneumonia, old age, and so on. 
 
 Differ. Writers differ from one another in opinion with 
 regard to the particle we should use with this verb. Some 
 say they differ with, others that they differ from, their 
 neighbors in opinion. The weight of authority is on the 
 side of always using from, though A may differ itith C 
 from D in opinion with regard, say, to the size of the fixed 
 stars. " I differ, as to this matter, from Bishop Lowth." 
 Cobbett. Different to is heard sometimes instead of dif- 
 ferent from. 
 
 . Directly. The Britons have a way of using this word 
 in the sense of when, as soon as. This is quite foreign to 
 its true meaning, which is immediately, at once, straight-
 
 THE VERBALIST. ^ 
 
 way. They say, for example, " Directly he reached the city, 
 he went to his brother's." " Directly he [the saint] was 
 dead, the Arabs sent his woolen shirt to the sovereign." 
 " London News." Dr. Hall says of its use in the sense of 
 as soon as : " But, after all, it may simply anticipate on the 
 English of the future." 
 
 Dirt. This word means filth or anything, that renders 
 foul and unclean, and means nothing else. It is often im- 
 properly used for earth or loam, and sometimes even for 
 sand or gravel. We not unfrequently hear of a dirt road 
 when an unpaved road is meant. 
 
 Discommode. This word is rarely used ; incommode 
 is accounted the better form. 
 
 Disremember. This is a word vulgarly used in the 
 sense of forget. It is said to be more frequently heard in 
 the South than in the North. 
 
 Distinguish. This verb is sometimes improperly used 
 for discriminate. We distinguish by means of the senses 
 as well as of the understanding ; we discriminate by means 
 of the understanding only. " It is difficult, in some cases, 
 to distinguish between" etc. : should be, " It is difficult, in 
 some cases, to discriminate between" etc. We distinguish 
 one thing from another, and discriminate between two or 
 more things. 
 
 Dock Wharf. The first of these words is often im- 
 properly used for the second. Of docks there are several 
 kinds : a naval dock is a place for the keeping of naval stores, 
 timber, and materials for ship-building ; a dry dock is a 
 place where vessels are drawn out of the water for repairs ; 
 a wet dock is a place where vessels are kept afloat at a cer- 
 tain level while they are loaded and unloaded ; a sectional 
 dock is a contrivance for raising vessels out of the water on 
 a series of air-tight boxes. A dock, then, is a place into
 
 52 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 which things are received ; hence, a man might fall into a 
 dock, but could no more fall off a dock than he could fall oft 
 a hole. A wharf is a sort of quay built by the side of the 
 water. A similar structure built at a right angle with the 
 shore is generally called a. pier. Vessels lie at wharves and 
 piers, not at docks. 
 
 Donate. This word, which is defined as meaning to 
 give, to contribute, is looked upon by most champions of 
 good English as being an abomination. Donation is also 
 little used by careful writers. " Donate" says Mr. Gould, 
 " may be dismissed with this remark : so long as its place is 
 occupied by give, bestow, grant, present, etc., it is not need- 
 ed ; and it should be unceremoniously bowed out, or thrust 
 out, of the seat into which it has, temporarily, intruded." 
 
 Done. This past participle is often very inelegantly, if 
 not improperly, used thus : " He did not cry out as some 
 have done against it," which should read, " He did not cry 
 out as some have against it " ; i e., " as some have cried out 
 against it." 
 
 " Done is frequently a very great offender against gram- 
 mar," says Cobbett. " To do is the act of doing. We see 
 people write, ' I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished 
 to have done! Now, what is meant by the writer? He 
 means to say that he did not speak so well as he then 
 wished, or was wishing, to speak. Therefore, the sentence 
 should be, ' I did not speak yesterday so well as I wished 
 to do' That is to say, ' so well as I wished to do it ' ; that is 
 to say, to do or to perform the act of speaking. 
 
 " Take great care not to be too free in your use of the 
 verb to do in any of its times or modes. It is a nice little 
 handy word, and, like our oppressed it, it is made use of 
 very often when the writer is at a loss for what to put down. 
 To do is to act, and therefore it never can, in any of its
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 53 
 
 parts, supply the place of a neuter verb. ' How do you 
 do ? ' Here do refers to the state, and is essentially pas- 
 sive or neuter. Yet, to employ it for this purpose is very 
 common. Dr. Blair, in his 23d Lecture, says : 'It is some- 
 what unfortunate that this Number of the "Spectator" 
 did not end, as it might have done, with the former beau- 
 tiful period.' That is to say, done it. And then we ask, 
 Done what ? Not the act of ending, because in this case 
 there is no action at all. The verb means to come to an 
 end, to cease, not to go any further. This same verb to 
 end is sometimes an active verb : ' I end my sentence ' ; 
 then the verb to do may supply its place ; as, ' I have not 
 ended my sentence so well as I might have done ' ; that is, 
 done it; that is, done, or performed, the act of ending. But 
 the Number of the ' Spectator' was no actor; it was expected 
 to perform nothing ; it was, by the Doctor, wished to have 
 ceased to proceed. 'Did not end as it very well might have 
 ended. . .' This would have been correct ; but the Doctor 
 wished to avoid the repetition, and thus he fell into bad 
 grammar. ' Mr. Speaker, I do not feel so well satisfied as 
 I should have done if the Right Honorable Gentleman had 
 explained the matter more fully.' To feel satisfied is when 
 the satisfaction is to arise from conviction produced by fact 
 or reasoning a senseless expression ; and to supply its 
 place, when it is, as in this case, a neuter verb, by to do, is 
 as senseless. Done what? "Done the act of feeling I 'I 
 do not feel so well satisfied as I should have done, or exe- 
 cuted, or performed the act of feeling' ! What incompre- 
 hensible words ! " 
 
 Don't. Everybody knows that don't is a contraction of 
 do not, and that doesn't is a contraction of does not ; and yet 
 nearlv everybody is guilty of using don't when he should 
 use doesn't. " So you don't go ; John doesn't either, I hear."
 
 54 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Double Genitive. An anecdote of Mr. Lincoln an 
 anecdote of Mr. Lincoln's. We see at a glance that these 
 two phrases are very different in meaning. So, also, a por- 
 trait of Brown a portrait of Brown's. No precise rule 
 has ever been given to guide us in our choice between these 
 two forms of the possessive case. Sometimes it is not ma- 
 terial which form is employed ; where, however, it is ma- 
 terial and it generally is we must consider the thought 
 we wish to express, and rely on our discrimination. 
 
 Dramatize. See ADAPT. 
 
 Drawing-room. See PARLOR. 
 
 Dress Grown. Within the memory of many persons 
 the outer garment worn by women was properly called a 
 gown by everybody, instead of being improperly called a 
 dress, as it now is by nearly everybody. 
 
 Drive. See RIDE. 
 
 Due Owing. These two words, though close syno- 
 nyms, should not be used indiscriminately. The mistake 
 usually made is in using due instead of owing. That is due 
 which ought to be paid as a debt ; that is owing which is to 
 be referred to as a source. " It was owing to his exertions 
 that the scheme succeeded." " It was owing to your negli- 
 gence that the accident happened." " A certain respect is 
 due to men's prejudices." " This was owing to an indiffer- 
 ence to the pleasures of life." " It is due to the public that 
 I should tell all I know of the matter." 
 
 Each other. " Their great authors address themselves, 
 not to their country, but to each other" Buckle. Each 
 other is properly applied to two only ; one another must be 
 used when the number considered exceeds two. Buckle 
 should have written one another and not each other, unless 
 he meant to intimate that the Germans had only two great 
 authors, which is not probable.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 55 
 
 Eat. Grammarians differ very widely with regard to 
 the conjugation of this verb ; there is no doubt, however, 
 that from every point of view the preferable forms for the 
 preterite and past participle are respectively ate and eaten. 
 To refined ears the other forms smack of vulgarity, although 
 supported by good authority. " I ate an apple." " I have 
 eaten dinner." " John ate supper with me." " As soon as 
 you have eaten breakfast we will set out." 
 
 Editorial. The use of this adjective as a substantive 
 is said to be an Americanism. 
 
 Education. This is one of the most misused of words. 
 A man may be well acquainted with the contents of text- 
 books, and yet be a person of little education ; on the other 
 hand, a man may be a person of good education, and yet 
 know little of the contents of text-books. Abraham Lin- 
 coln and Edwin Forrest knew comparatively little of what 
 is generally learned in schools ; still they were mon of cul- 
 ture, men of education. A man may have ever so much 
 book-knowledge and still be a boor ; but a man can not be 
 a person of good education and not be so far as manner 
 is concerned a gentleman. Education, then, is a whole 
 of which Instruction and Breeding are the parts. The man 
 or the woman even in this democratic country of ours 
 who deserves the title of gentleman or lady is always a per- 
 son of education ; i. e., he or she has a sufficient acquaint- 
 ance with books and with the usages of social intercourse 
 to acquit himself or herself creditably in the society of cul- 
 tivated people. Not moral worth, nor learning, nor wealth, 
 nor all three combined, can unaided make a gentleman, for 
 with all three a man might be uneducated i. e., coarse, un- 
 bred, unschooled in those things which alone make men 
 welcome in the society of the refined. 
 
 Effectuate. This word, together with ratiocinate and
 
 5 6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 eventuate, is said to be a great favorite with the rural mem- 
 bers of the Arkansas legislature. 
 
 Effluvium. The plural of this word is effluvia. It is 
 a common error with those who have no knowledge of Latin 
 to speak of " a disagreeable effluvia," which is as incorrect 
 as it would be to talk about " a disagreeable vapors." 
 
 Effort without Effect. " Some writers deal in exple- 
 tives to a degree that tires the ear and offends the under- 
 standing. With them everything is excessively, or immense- 
 ly, or extremely, or vastly, or surpi isingly, or -wonderfully, or 
 abundantly, or the like. The notion of such writers is that 
 these words give strength to what they are saying. This is 
 a great error. Strength must be found in the thought, or it 
 will never be found in the -words. Big-sounding words, 
 without thoughts corresponding, are effort without effect." 
 William Cobbett. See FORCIBLE-FEEBLE. 
 
 Egoist. " One of a class of philosophers who professed 
 to be sure of nothing but their own existence." Reid. 
 
 Egotist. " One who talks much of himself." 
 
 " A tribe of egotists for whom I have always had a mor- 
 tal aversion." " Spectator." 
 
 Either. This word means, strictly, the one or the other 
 of two. Unlike both, which means two. taken collectively, 
 either, like each, may mean two considered separately ; but in 
 this sense each is the better word to use. " Give me either 
 of them " means, Give me the one or the other of two. 
 " He has a farm on either side of the river " would mean 
 that he has two farmspone on each (or either) side of the 
 river. " He has a farm on both sides of the river " would 
 mean that his farm lies partly on the one side of the river 
 and partly on the other. The use of either in the sense of 
 each, though biblical and defensible, may be accounted little 
 if any better than an affectation. Neither is the negative
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 57 
 
 of either. Either is responded to by or, neither by nor ; 
 as, "either this or that," " neither this nor that." Either 
 and neither should not strictly be use.d in relation to 
 more than two objects. But, though both eitAerand. neither 
 are strictly applicable to two only, they have been for a 
 very long time used in relation to more than two by many 
 good writers ; and, as it is often convenient so to use them, 
 it seems probable that the custom will prevail. When more 
 than two things are referred to, any and none should be 
 used instead of either and. neither ; as, " any of the three," 
 not, " either of the three " ; " none of the four," not, " neither 
 of the four." 
 
 Either Alternative. The word alternative means a 
 choice offered between two things. An alternative unit, 
 for example, offers the alternative of choosing between the 
 doing of a specified act or of showing cause why it is not 
 done. Such propositions, therefore, as, " You are at lib- 
 erty to choose either alternative," " Two alternatives are 
 presented to me," " Several alternatives presented them- 
 selves," and the like, are not correct English. The word is 
 correctly used thus : " I am confronted with a hard alterna- 
 tive : I must either denounce a friend or betray my trust." 
 We rarely hear the word alternate or any of its derivatives 
 correctly pronounced. 
 
 Elder. See OLDER. 
 
 Elegant. Professor Proctor says : " If you say to an 
 American, ' This is a fine morning,' he is likely to reply, 
 ' It is an elegant morning,' or perhaps oftener by using sim- 
 ply the word elegant. This is not a pleasing use of the 
 word." This is not American English, Professor, but pop- 
 injay English. 
 
 Ellipsis. The omission of a word or of words neces- 
 sary to complete the grammatical construction, but not
 
 58 THE VERBALIST 
 
 necessary to make the meaning clear, is called an ellipsit 
 We almost always, whether in speaking or in writing, leave 
 out some of the words necessary to the full expression of 
 our meaning. For example, in dating a letter to-day, we 
 should write, " New York, August 25, 1881," which would 
 be, if fully written out, " I am now writing in the city of 
 New York ; this is the twenty-fifth day of August, and this 
 month is in the one thousand eight hundred and eighty-first 
 year of the Christian era." " I am going to Wallack's " 
 means, " I am going to Wallack's theatre." " I shall spend 
 the summer at my aunt's " ; i. e., at my aunt's house. 
 
 By supplying the ellipses we can often discover the 
 errors in a sentence, if there are any. 
 
 Enjoy bad Health. As no one has ever been known 
 to enjoy bad health, it is better to employ some other form 
 of expression than this. Say, for example, he is in feebk, 
 or delicate, health. 
 
 Enthuse. This is a word that is occasionally heard in 
 conversation, and is sometimes met with in print ; but it 
 has not as yet made its appearance in the dictionaries. 
 What its ultimate fate will be, of course, no one can tell ; 
 for the present, however, it is studiously shunned by those 
 who are at all careful in the selection of their language. It 
 is said to be most used in the South. The writer has never 
 seen it anywhere in the North but in the columns of the 
 " Boston Congregationalist." 
 
 Epigram. " The word epigram signified originally an 
 inscription on a monument. It next came to mean a short 
 ipoem containing some single thought pointedly expressed, 
 the subjects being very various amatory, convivial, moral, 
 eulogistic, satirical, humorous, etc. Of the various devices 
 for brevity and point employed in such compositions, es- 
 pecially in modern times, the most frequent is a play upon
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 59 
 
 words. ... In the epigram the mind is roused by a conflict 
 or contradiction between the form of the language and the 
 meaning really conveyed." Bain. 
 
 Some examples are : 
 
 " When you have nothing to say, say it." 
 
 " We can not see the wood for the trees " ; that is, \ve 
 can not get a general view because we are so engrossed with 
 the details. 
 
 "Verbosity is cured by a large .vocabulary" ; that is, he 
 who commands a large vocabulary is able to select words 
 that will give his meaning tersely. 
 
 "By indignities men come to dignities." 
 
 " Some people are too foolish to commit follies." 
 
 " He went to his imagination for his facts, and to his 
 memory for his tropes." 
 
 Epithet. Many persons use this word who are in error 
 with regard to its meaning ; they think that to " apply epi- 
 thets" to a person is to vilify and insult him. Not at all. 
 An epithet is a word that expresses a quality, good or bad ; 
 a term that expresses an attribute. " All adjectives are epi- 
 thets, but all epithets are not adjectives" says Crabb ; " thus, 
 in Virgil's Pater tineas, the/a/^r is an epithet, but not an 
 adjective" Epithet is the technical term of the rhetorician ; 
 adjective, that of the grammarian. 
 
 Equally as well. A redundant form of expression, as 
 any one will see who for a moment considers it. As -well, 
 or equally well, expresses quite as much as equally as -well. 
 
 Equanimity of mind. This phrase is tautological, 
 and expresses no more than does equanimity (literally, 
 " equalmindedness ") alone ; hence, of mind is superfluous, 
 and consequently inelegant. Anxiety of mind is a scarcely 
 less redundant form of expression. A capricious mind is in 
 the same category.
 
 60 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Erratum. Plural, errata. 
 
 Esquire. An esquire was originally the shield-bearer 
 of a knight. It is much, and, in the opinion of some, rather 
 absurdly, used in this country. Mr. Richard Grant White 
 says on the subject of its use : " I have yet to discover 
 what a man means when he addresses a letter to John 
 Dash, Esqr." He means no more nor less than when he 
 writes Mr. (master). The use of Esq. is quite as prevalent 
 in England as in America, and has little more meaning 
 there than here. It simply belongs to our stock of cour- 
 teous epithets. 
 
 Euphemism. A description which describes in in- 
 offensive language that which is of itself offensive, or a 
 figure which uses agreeable phraseology when the literal 
 would be offensive, is called a euphemism. 
 
 Eventuate. See EFFECTUATE. 
 
 Everlastingly. This adverb is misused in the South 
 in a manner that is very apt to excite the risibility of one 
 to whom the peculiar misuse is new. The writer recently 
 visited the upper part of New York with a distinguished 
 Southern poet and journalist. It was the gentleman's first 
 ride over an elevated road. When we were fairly under 
 way, in admiration of the rate of speed at which the cars 
 were moving, he exclaimed, " Well, they do just everlast- 
 ingly shoot along, don't they ! " 
 
 Every. This word, which means simply each or all 
 taken separately, is of late years frequently made, by slip- 
 shod speakers, to do duty for perfect, entire, great, or all 
 possible. Thus we have such expressions as every pains, 
 every confidence, every praise, every charity, and so on. 
 We also have such diction as, "Every one has this in com- 
 mon " ; meaning, " All of us have this in common." 
 
 Every-day Latin. A fortiori : with stronger reason-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 6 1 
 
 A posteriori : from the effect to the cause. A priori : from 
 the cause to the effect. Bona fide : in good faith ; in real- 
 ity. Certiorari : to be made more certain. Ceteris panbus : 
 other circumstances being equal. De facto : in fact ; in 
 reality. De jure : in right ; in law. Ecce homo : behold 
 the man. Ergo : therefore. Et cetera : and the rest ; and 
 so on. Excerpta : extracts. Exempli gratia : by way of 
 example; abbreviated, e. g. t and ex. gr. Ex ojficio : by 
 virtue of his office. Ex parte : on one side ; an ex parts 
 statement is a statement en one side only. Ibidem : in the 
 same place ; abbreviated, ibid. Idem : the same. Id est : 
 that is ; abbreviated, i. e. Imprimis : in the first place. 
 In statu quo : in the former state ; just as it was. In statit 
 quo ante helium : in the same state as before the war. In 
 transitu : in passing. Index expurgatorius : a purifying 
 index. In extremis : at the point of death. In memoriam : 
 in memory. Ipse dixit : on his sole assertion. Item: also. 
 Labor omnia vincit : labor overcomes every difficulty. Locus 
 sigilli : the place of the seal. Multum in parvo : much 
 in little. Mutatis mutandis : after making the necessary 
 changes. Ne plus ultra : nothing beyond ; the utmost 
 point. Nolens volens : willing or unwilling. Nota bene : 
 mark well; take particular notice. Omncs : all. tern- 
 fora, O mores t O the times and the manners ! Otium cum 
 dignitate : ease with dignity. Otium sine dignitate : ease 
 without dignity. Particeps criminis : an accomplice. Pec-, 
 cam : I have sinned. Per se : by itself. Ptima facie : on 
 the first view or appearance ; at first sight. Pro bono pub- 
 lic o : for the public good. Quidnunc: what now? Qtdd 
 pro quo : one thing for another ; an equivalent. Quon- 
 dam : formerly. Rara avis : a rare bird ; a prodigy. Re- 
 surgam : I shall rise again. Seriatim : in order. Sine 
 die : without specifying any particular day ; to an indefinite
 
 62 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 time. Sine qua non : an indispensable condition. Stti 
 genet is : of its own kind. Vade mecum : go with me. 
 Verbatim : word by word. Versus : against. Vale : fare- 
 well. Via : by the way of. Vice : in the place of. Vide : 
 see. Vi et armis : by main force. Viva voce : orally ; by 
 word of mouth. Vox populi, vox Dei : the voice of the 
 people is the voice of God. 
 
 Evidence Testimony. These words, though differ- 
 ing widely in meaning, are often used indiscriminately by 
 careless speakers. Evidence is that which tends to convince ; 
 testimony is that which is intended to convince. In a judi- 
 cial investigation, for example, there might be a great deal 
 of testimony a great deal of testifying and very little evi- 
 dence ; and the evidence might be quite the reverse of the 
 testimony. See PROOF. 
 
 Exaggeration. "Weak minds, feeble writers and 
 speakers delight in superlatives" See EFFORT WITHOUT 
 EFFECT. 
 
 Except. " No one need apply except he is thoroughly 
 familiar with the business," should be, "No one need 
 apply unless" etc. 
 
 Excessively. That class of persons who are never 
 content with any form of expression that falls short of the 
 superlative, frequently use excessively when exceedingly or 
 even the little word very would serve their turn better. 
 They say, for example, that the weather is excessively hot, 
 when they should content themselves with saying simply 
 that the weather is very -warm, or, if the word suits them 
 better, hot. Intemperance in the use of language is as 
 much to be censured as intemperance in. anything else ; 
 like intemperance in other things, its effect is vulgarizing. 
 
 Execute. This word means to follow out to the end, 
 to carry into effect, to accomplish, to fulfill, to perform ;
 
 THE VERBALIST. 63 
 
 as, to execute an order, to execute a purpose. And the 
 dictionaries and almost universal usage say that it also 
 means to put to death in conformity with a judicial sen- 
 tence ; as, to execute a criminal. Some of our careful 
 speakers, however, maintain that the use of the word in 
 this sense is indefensible. They say that laws and sentences 
 are executed, but not criminals, and that their execution 
 only rarely results in the death of the persons upon whom 
 they are executed. In the hanging of a criminal, it is, then, 
 not the criminal who is executed, but the law and the sen- 
 tence. The criminal is hanged. 
 
 Expect. This verb always has reference to what is to 
 come, never to what is past. We can not expect back- 
 ward. Instead, therefore, of saying, " I expect, you thought 
 I would come to see you yesterday," we should say, " I 
 suppose" etc. 
 
 Experience. " We experience great difficulty in get- 
 ting him to take his medicine." The word have ought to 
 be big enough, in a sentence like this, for anybody. " We 
 experienced great hardships." Better, " We suffered." 
 
 Extend. This verb, the primary meaning of which is 
 to stretch out, is used, especially by lovers of big words, in 
 connections where to give, to show, or to offer would be 
 preferable. For example, it is certainly better to say, 
 " They showed me every courtesy," than " They extended 
 every courtesy to me." See EVERY. 
 
 False Grammar. Some examples of false grammar 
 will show what every one is the better for knowing : that 
 in literature nothing should be taken on trust ; that errors 
 of grammar even are found where we should least expect 
 them. " I do not know whether the imputation were just 
 or not." Emerson. " I proceeded to inquire if the ' ex- 
 tract "... were a veritable quotation." Emerson. Should
 
 64 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 be was in both cases. " How sweet the moonlight sleeps !" 
 Townsend, "Art of Speech," vol. i, p. 114. Should be 
 sweetly. "There is no question but these arts . . . will 
 greatly aid him," etc. Ibid., p. 130. Should be that. " Near- 
 ly all who have been distinguished in literature or oratory 
 have made . . . the generous confession that their attain- 
 ments have been reached through patient and laborious in- 
 dustry. They have declared that speaking and writing, 
 though once difficult for them, have become well-nigh recrea- 
 tions." Ibid., p. 143. The have been should be were, and 
 the have become should be became. " Many pronominal ad- 
 verbs are correlatives of each other" Harkness's " New 
 Latin Grammar," p. 147. Should be one another. " Hot 
 and cold springs, boiling springs, and quiet springs lie with- 
 in a few feet of each other, but none of them are properly 
 geysers" Appletons' "Condensed Cyclopaedia," vol. ii, p. 
 414. Should be one another, and not one of them is properly a 
 geyser. " How much better for you as seller and the nation 
 as buyer . . . than to sink ... in cutting one another's 
 throats. " Should be each other's. " A minister, noted for 
 prolixity of style, was once preaching before the inmates of 
 a lunatic asylum. In one of his illustrations he painted a 
 scene of a man condemned to be hung, but reprieved under 
 the gallows." These two sentences are so faulty that the 
 only way to mend them is to rewrite them. They are from 
 a work that professes to teach the "art of speech." Mend- 
 ed: "A minister, noted for his prolixity, once preached be- 
 fore the inmates of a lunatic asylum. By way of illus- 
 tration he painted a scene in which a man, who had been 
 condemned to be hanged, was reprieved under the gallows." 
 Female. The terms male and female are not unfre- 
 quently used where good taste would suggest some other 
 word. For example, we see over the doors of school-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 65 
 
 houses, "Entrance for males," "Entrance for females." 
 Now bucks and bulls are males ae well as boys and men, 
 and cows and sows are females as well as girls and women. 
 
 Fetch. See BRING. 
 
 Fewer. See LESS. 
 
 Final Completion. If there were such a thing as a 
 plurality or a series of completions, there would, of course, 
 be such a thing as the final completion ; but, as every 
 completion is final, to talk about a final completion is as 
 absurd as it would be to talk about a. final finality. 
 
 First rate. There are people who object to this phrase, 
 and yet it is well enough when properly placed, as it is, for 
 example, in such a sentence as this : " He's a ' first class ' 
 fellow, and I like him first rate ; if I didn't, ' you bet ' I'd 
 just give him ' hail Columbia ' for ' blowing " the thing 
 all round town like the big fool that he is." 
 
 Firstly. George Washington Moon says in defense of 
 firstly : " I do not object to the occasional use of first as 
 an adverb ; but, in sentences where it would be followed 
 by secondly, thirdly, etc., I think that the adverbial form i? 
 preferable." To this, one of Mr. Moon's critics replies : 
 " However desirable it may be to employ the word firstly 
 on certain occasions, the fact remains that the employment 
 of it on any occasion is not the best usage." Webster in- 
 serts firstly, but remarks, " Improperly used for first" 
 
 Flee Fly. These verbs, though near of kin, are net 
 interchangeable. For example, we can not say, " He fieit, 
 the city," " He flew from his enemies," " He flew at the ap^ 
 proach of danger," flew being the imperfect tense of to fly, 
 which is properly used to express the action of birds on 
 the wing, of kites, arrows, etc. The imperfect tense of to 
 flee is fled ; hence, " He fled the city," etc. 
 
 Forcible-feeble. This is a " novicy " kind of diction
 
 66 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 in which the would-be forcible writer defeats his object by 
 the overuse of expletives. Examples : " And yet the great 
 centralization of wealth is one of the [great] evils of the 
 
 day. All that Mr. utters [says] upon this point is 
 
 forcible and just. This centralization is due to the enor- 
 mous reproductive power of capital, to the immense advan- 
 tage that costly and complicated machinery gives to great 
 [large] establishments, and to the marked difference of per- 
 sonal force among men." The first great is misplaced ; the 
 word utters is misused ; the second great is ill-chosen. The 
 other words in italics only enfeeble the sentence. Again : 
 " In countries where immense [large] estates exist, a breaking 
 up of these -vast demesnes into many minor freeholds would 
 no doubt be a [of] -very great advantage." Substitute large 
 for immense, and take out vast, many, and very, and the 
 language becomes much more forcible. Again : " The very 
 
 first effect of the taxation plan would be destructive 
 
 to the interests of this great multitude [class] ; it would im- 
 poverish our innumerable farmers, it would confiscate the 
 earnings of [our] industrious tradesmen and artisans, it 
 would [and] paralyze the hopes of struggling millions." 
 What a waste of portly expletives is here ! With them the 
 sentence is high-flown and weak ; take them out, and in- 
 troduce the words inclosed in brackets, and it becomes 
 simple and forcible. 
 
 Friend Acquaintance. Some philosopher has said 
 that he who has half a dozen friends in the course of his 
 life may esteem himself fortunate ; and yet, to judge from 
 many people's talk, one would suppose they had friends by 
 the score. No man knows whether he has any friends or 
 not until he has " their adoption tried " ; hence, he who is 
 desirous to call things by their right names will, as a rule, 
 use the word acquaintance instead of friend. " Your friend "
 
 THE VERBALIST. 67 
 
 is a favorite and very objectionable way many people, es- 
 pecially young people, have of writing themselves at the 
 bottom of their letters. In this way the obscure stripling 
 protests himself the FRIEND of the first man in the land, 
 and that, too, when he is, perhaps, a comparative stranger 
 and asking a favor. 
 
 Galsome. Here is a good, sonorous Anglo-Saxon word 
 meaning malignant, venomous, churlish that has fallen 
 into disuse. 
 
 Gentleman. Few things are in worse taste than to use 
 the term gentleman, whether in the singular or plural, to 
 designate the sex. " If I was a gentleman," says Miss 
 Snooks. "Gentlemen have just as much curiosity as ladies" 
 says Mrs. Jenkins. " Gentlemen have so much more liberty 
 than we ladies have," says Mrs. Parvenue. Now, if these 
 ladies were ladies, they would in each of these cases use the 
 word man instead of gentleman, and woman instead of lady ; 
 further, Miss Snooks would say, "If I were." Well-bred 
 men, men of culture and refinement gentlemen, in short 
 use the terms lady and gentleman comparatively little, and 
 they are especially careful not to call themselves gentlemen 
 when they can avoid it. A gentleman, for example, does 
 not say,- " I, with some other gentlemen, went," etc. ; he is 
 careful to leave out the word other. The men who use 
 these terms most, and especially those who lose no oppor- 
 tunity to proclaim themselves gentlemen, belong to that class 
 of men who cock their hats on one side of their heads, and 
 often wear them when and where gentlemen would remove 
 them ; who pride themselves on their familiarity with the 
 latest slang ; who proclaim their independence by showing 
 the least possible consideration for others ; who laugh long 
 and loud at their own wit ; who wear a profusion of cheap 
 finery, such as outlandish watch-chains hooked in the low-
 
 68 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 est button-hole of their vests, Brazilian diamonds in their 
 shirt-bosoms, and big seal-rings on their little ringers ; who 
 use bad grammar and interlard their conversation with big 
 oaths. In business correspondence Smith is addressed as 
 Sir, while Smith & Brown are often addressed as Gentle- 
 men or, vulgarly, as Gents, Better, much, is it to address 
 them as Sirs. 
 
 Since writing the foregoing, I have met with the follow- 
 ing paragraph in the London publication, "All the Year 
 Round " : " Socially, the term ' gentleman ' 'has become al- 
 most vulgar. It is certainly less employed by gentlemen 
 than by inferior persons. The one speaks of 'a man I 
 know,' the other of 'a gentleman I know.' In the one 
 case the gentleman is taken for granted, in the other it 
 seems to need specification. Again, as regards the term 
 ' lady." It is quite in accordance with the usages of society 
 to speak of your acquaintance the duchess as ' a very nice 
 person.' People who would say ' very nice lady ' are not 
 generally of a social class which has much to do with 
 duchesses ; and if you speak of one of these as a ' person,' 
 you will soon be made to feel your mistake." 
 
 Gents. Of all vulgarisms, this is, perhaps, the most 
 offensive. If we say gents, why not say lades ? 
 
 Gerund. " ' I have work to do,' ' there is no more to 
 say' are phrases where the verb is not in the common in- 
 finitive, but in the form of the gerund. ' He is the man to 
 do it, or for doing it.' ' A house to let,' ' the course to steer 
 by,' 'a place to lie in,' 'a thing to be done,' 'a city to take 
 refuge in, 1 ' the means to do ill deeds,' are adjective gerunds ; 
 they may be expanded into clauses : ' a house that the 
 owner lets or will let ' ; ' the course that we should steer 
 by ' ; 'a thing that should be done ' ; ' a city wherein one 
 may take refuge ' ; ' the means whereby ill deeds may be
 
 THE VERBALIST. 69 
 
 done.' When the to ceased in the twelfth century to be 
 a distinctive mark of the dative infinitive or gerund, for 
 was introduced to make the writer's intention clear. Hence 
 the familiar form in ' what went ye out for to see ? ' ' they 
 came for to show him the temple.' " Bain. 
 
 Get. In sentences expressing simple possession as, " I 
 lizvegot a book," " What has he got there ? " " Have you 
 got any news?" " They have got a new house," etc. got 
 is entirely superfluous, if not, as some writers contend, ab- 
 solutely incorrect. Possession is completely expressed by 
 have. " Foxes have holes ; the birds of the air have 
 nests " ; not, " Foxes have got holes ; the birds of the air 
 have got nests." Formerly the imperfect tense of this verb 
 was gat, which is now obsolete, and the perfect participle 
 was gotten, which, some grammarians say, is growing obso- 
 lete. If this be true, there is no good reason for it. If we 
 say eaten, -written, sttiven, forgotten, why not say gotten, 
 where this form of the participle is more euphonious as it 
 often is than got ? 
 
 Goods. This term, like other terms used in trade, should 
 be restricted to the vocabulary of commerce. Messrs. Arnold 
 & Constable, in common with the Washington Market 
 huckster, very properly speak of their wares as their goods ; 
 but Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Constable should, and I doubt 
 not do, speak of their gowns as being made of fine or 
 coarse silk, cashmere, muslin, or whatever the material 
 may be. 
 
 Gould against Alford. Mr. Edward S. Gould, in his 
 review of Dean Alford's " Queen's English," remarks, on 
 page 131 of his " Good English " : " And now, as to the 
 style * of the Dean's book, taken as a whole. He must be 
 held responsible for every error in it ; because, as has been 
 * Mr. Gould criticises the Dean's diction, not his style.
 
 7 o THE VERBALIST. 
 
 shown, he has had full leisure for its revision.* The errors 
 are, nevertheless, numerous ; and the shortest way to ex- 
 hibit them is f in tabular form." In several instances Mr. 
 Gould would not have taken the Dean to task had he 
 known English better. The following are a few of Mr. 
 Gould's corrections in which he is clearly in the right : 
 
 Paragraph 
 
 4. " Into another land than " ; should be, " into a land 
 otlier than." 
 
 16. " We do not follow rule in spelling other words, 
 but custom " ; should be, " we do not follow rule, but cus- 
 tom, in spelling," etc. 
 
 1 8. " The distinction is observed in French, but never 
 appears to have been made," etc. ; read, " appears never to 
 have been made." 
 
 61. " Rather to aspirate more than less"; should be, 
 " to aspirate more rather than less." 
 
 g. "It is said also only to occur three times," etc. ; 
 read, " occur only three times." 
 
 44. " This doubling only takes place in a syllable," etc. ; 
 read, " takes place only" 
 
 142. " Which can only be decided when those circum- 
 stances are known " ; read, "can be decided only when," 
 etc. 
 
 166. " I will only say that it produces," etc. ; read, " I 
 will say only" etc. 
 
 170. " It is said that this can only be filled in thus " ; 
 read, " can be filled in only thus." 
 
 368. " I can only deal with the complaint in a general 
 way " ; read, ' ' deal -with the complaint only" etc. 
 
 86. "/ so far as they are idiomatic," etc. What is the 
 use of in ? 
 
 171. " Try the experiment" ; "tried the experiment." 
 Read, make and made. 
 
 345. " It is most generally used of that very sect," etc. 
 Why most? 
 
 * Better, " to revise it." 
 
 t " Is to put them in tabular form."
 
 THE VERBALIST. 71 
 
 362. " The joining together two clauses with a third," 1 
 etc. ; read, " of two clauses," etc. 
 
 Gown. See DRESS. 
 
 Graduated. Students do not graduate they are grad- 
 uated. Hence most writers nowadays say, " I was, he 
 was, or they were graduated " ; and ask, " When were you, 
 or was he, graduated ? " 
 
 Grammatical Errors. " The correctness of the ex-- 
 pression grammatical errors has been disputed. ' How,' it 
 has been asked, ' can an error be grammatical ? ' How, it 
 may be replied, can we with propriety say, grammatically 
 incorrect? Yet we can do so. 
 
 " No one will question the propriety of saying gram- 
 matically correct. Yet the expression is the acknowledg- 
 ment of things grammatically incorrect. Likewise the phrase 
 grammatical correctness implies the existence of grammatical 
 incorrectness. If, then, a sentence is grammatically incorrect, 
 or, what is the same thing, has grammatical incorrectness, it 
 includes a GRAMMATICAL ERROR. Grammatically incorrect 
 signifies INCORRECT WITH RELATION TO THE RULES OF 
 GRAMMAR. Grammatical errors signifies ERRORS WITH RE- 
 LATION TO THE RULES OF GRAMMAR. 
 
 " They who ridicule the phrase grammatical errors, and 
 substitute the phrase errors in grammar, make an egregious 
 mistake. Can there, it may be asked with some show of 
 reason, be an error in grammar ? Why, grammar is a 
 science founded in our nature, referable to our ideas of 
 time, relation, method ; imperfect, doubtless, as to the sys- 
 tem by which it is represented ; but surely we can speak 
 of error in that which is error's criterion ! All this is 
 hypercritical, but hypercriticism must be met with its own 
 weapons. 
 
 " Of the two expressions a grammatical error, and an
 
 7 2 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 error in grammar the former is preferable. If one's judg- 
 ment can accept neither, one must relinquish the belief in 
 the possibility of tersely expressing the idea of an offense 
 against grammatical rules. Indeed, it would be difficult 
 to express the idea even by circumlocution. Should some 
 one say, ' This sentence is, according to the rules of gram- 
 mar, incorrect.' ' What ! ' the hyperciitic may exclaim, ' in- 
 correct ! and according to the rules of grammar!' 'This 
 sentence, then,' the corrected person would reply, ' contains 
 an error in grammar.' ' Nonsense ! ' the hypercritic may 
 shout, ' grammar is a science ; you may be wrong in its 
 interpretation, but principles are immutable ! ' 
 
 " After this, it need scarcely be added that, grammati- 
 cally, no one can make a mistake, that there can be no 
 grammatical mistake, that there can be no bad grammar, 
 and, consequently, no bad English ; a very pleasant con- 
 clusion, which would save us a great amount of trouble if it 
 did not lack the insignificant quality of being true." " Vul- 
 garisms and Other Errors of Speech." 
 
 Gratuitous. There are those who object to the use of 
 this word in the sense of unfounded, unwarranted, unreason- 
 able, untrue. Its use in this sense, however, has the sanc- 
 tion of abundant authority. " Weak and gratuitous con- 
 jectures." Person. " A gratuitous assumption." Godwin. 
 " The gratuitous theory." Southey. " A gratuitous inven- 
 tion." De Quincey. " But it is needless to dwell on the 
 improbability of a hypothesis which has been shown to be 
 altogether gratuitous" Dr. Newman. 
 
 Grow. This verb originally meant to increase in size, 
 but has normally come to be also used to express a change 
 from one state or condition to another ; as, to grow dark, to 
 grow weak or strong, to grow faint, etc. But it is doubt- 
 ful whether what is large can properly be said to groin
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 73 
 
 small. In this sense, become would seem to be the better 
 word. 
 
 Gums. See RUBBERS. 
 
 Had have. Nothing could be more incorrect than the 
 bringing together of these two auxiliary verbs in this man- 
 ner ; and yet we occasionally find it in writers of repute. 
 Instead of " Had I known it," " Had you seen it," " Had 
 we been there," we hear, " Had I have known it," " Had 
 you have seen it," " Had we have been there." 
 
 Had ought. This is a vulgarism of the worst descrip- 
 tion, yet we hear people, who would be highly indignant 
 if any one should intimate that they were not ladies and 
 gentlemen, say, " He had ought to go." A fitting reply 
 would be, " Yes, I think he better had." Ought says all 
 that had ought says. 
 
 Had rather. This expression and had better are much 
 used, but, in the opinion of many, are indefensible. We 
 hear them in such sentences as, " I had rather not do it," 
 " You had better go home." " Now, what tense," it is asked, 
 ''is had do and had go?" If we transpose the words thus, 
 " You had do better (to) go home," it becomes at once appar- 
 ent, it is asserted, that the proper word to use in connection 
 with rather and better'^ not had, but would ; thus, " I -would 
 rather not do it," " You would better go home." Examples 
 of this use of had can be found in the writings of our best 
 authors. For what Professor Bain has to say on this sub- 
 ject in his "Composition Grammar," see SUBJUNCTIVE 
 MOOD. 
 
 Half. " It might have been expressed in one half the 
 space.' We see at a glance that one here is superfluous. 
 
 Hanged Hung. The irregular form, hung, of the 
 past participle of the verb to hang is most used ; but, when 
 the word denotes suspension by the neck for the purpose of
 
 74 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 destroying life, the regular form, hanged, is always used by 
 careful writers and speakers. 
 
 Haste. See HURRY. 
 
 Heading. See CAPTION. 
 
 Healthy Wholesome. The first of these two words 
 is often improperly used for the second ; as, " Onions are a 
 healthy vegetable." A man, if he is in good health, is heal- 
 thy ; the food he eats, if it is not deleterious, is wholesome. 
 A healthy ox makes wholesome food. We speak of healthy 
 surroundings, a healthy climate, situation, employment, and 
 of -wholesome food, advice, examples. Healthful is gener- 
 ally used in the sense of conducive to health, virtue, moral- 
 ity ; as, healthful exercise, the healthful spirit of the com- 
 munity meaning that the spirit that prevails in the com- 
 munity is conducive to virtue and good morals. 
 
 Helpmate. The dictionaries suggest that this word is 
 a corruption of help and meet, as we find these words used 
 in Gen. ii, 18, " I will make him a help meet for him," and 
 that the proper word is helpmeet. If, as is possible, the 
 words in Genesis mean, " I will make him a help, meet 
 [suitable] for him," then neither helpmate nor helpmeet has 
 any raison d'etre. 
 
 Highfalutin. This is a style of writing often called the 
 freshman style. It is much indulged in by very young men, 
 and by a class of older men who instinctively try to make 
 up in clatter for what they lack in matter. Examples of this 
 kind of writing are abundant in Professor L. T. Townsend's 
 " Art of Speech," which, as examples, are all the better for 
 not being of that exaggerated description sometimes met 
 with in the newspapers. Vol. i, p. 131 : " Very often ad- 
 verbs, prepositions, and relatives drift so far from their moor- 
 ings as to lose themselves, or make attachments where they 
 do not belong." Again, p. 135 : " Every law of speech en-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 75 
 
 forces the statement that there is no excuse for such inflated 
 and defective style. [Such style !] To speak thus is treason 
 in the realms and under the laws of language." Again, 
 p. 175 : " Cultivate figure-making habitudes. This is done 
 by asking the spiritual import of every physical object 
 seen ; also by forming the habit of constantly metaphoriz- 
 ing. Knock at the door of anything met which interests, 
 and ask, ' Who lives here ? ' The process is to look, then 
 close the eyes, then look within." The blundering inan- 
 ity of this kind of writing is equaled only by its bump- 
 tious grandiloquence. On p. 137 Dr. Townsend quotes 
 this wholesome admonition from Coleridge : " If men 
 would only say what they have to say in plain terms, how 
 much more eloquent they would be ! " As an example of 
 reportorial highfalutin, I submit the following : " The spirit 
 of departed day had joined communion with the myriad 
 ghosts of centuries, and four full hours fled into eternity 
 before the citizens of many parts of the town found out 
 there was a freshet here at all." 
 
 Hints. " Never write about any matter that you do 
 not well understand. If you clearly understand all about 
 your matter, you will never want thoughts, and thoughts 
 instantly become words. 
 
 "One of the greatest of all faults in writing and in 
 speaking is this : the using of many words to say little. 
 In order to guard yourself against this fault, inquire what is 
 the substance, or amount, of what you have said. Take a 
 long speech of some talking Lord and put down upon paper 
 what the amount of it is. You will most likely find that 
 the amount is very small ; but at any rate, when you 
 get it, you will then be able to examine it and to tell 
 what it is worth. A very few examinations of the sort 
 will so frighten you that you will be for ever after upon
 
 7 6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 your guard against talking a great deal and saying little,"-* 
 Cobbett. 
 
 " Be simple, be unaffected, be honest in your speaking and 
 writing. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 
 Call a spade a spade, not a well-known oblong instrument 
 of manual husbandry ; let home be home, not a residence ; 
 a place a place, not a locality ; and so of the rest. Where 
 a short word will do, you always lose by using a long one. 
 You lose in clearness ; you lose in honest expression of 
 your meaning ; and, in the estimation of all men who are 
 qualified to judge, you lose in reputation for ability. The 
 only true way to shine, even in this false world, is to be 
 modest and unassuming. Falsehood may be a very thick 
 crust, but, in the course of time, truth will find a place to 
 break through. Elegance of language may not be in the 
 power of all of us ; but simplicity and straightforwardness 
 are. Write much as you would speak ; speak as you think. 
 If with your inferiors, speak no coarser than usual ; if with 
 your superiors, no finer. Be what you say ; and, within 
 the rules of prudence, say what you are." Dean Alford. 
 
 "Go critically over what you have written, and strike 
 out every word, phrase, and clause which it is found will 
 leave the sentence neither less clear nor less forcible than 
 it is without them." Swinton. 
 
 " With all watchfulness, it is astonishing what slips are 
 made, even by good writers, in the employment of an inap- 
 propriate word. In Gibbon's ' Rise and Fall,' the follow- 
 ing instance occurs : ' Of nineteen tyrants who started up 
 after the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed 
 a life of peace or a natural death.' Alison, in his ' His- 
 tory of Europe,' writes: 'Two great sins one of omission 
 and one of commission have been commiittdhy the states 
 of Europe in modern times.' And not long since a worthy
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 77 
 
 Scotch minister, at the close of the services, intimated his 
 intention of visiting some of his people as follows : ' I 
 
 intend, during this week, to visit in Mr. M 's district, 
 
 and will on this occasion take the opportunity of embracing 
 all the servants in the district.' When worthies such as 
 these offend, who shall call the bellman in question as he 
 cries, ' Lost, a silver-handled silk lady's parasol ' ? 
 
 " The proper arrangement of words into sentences and 
 paragraphs gives clearness and strength. To attain a clear 
 and pithy style, it may be necessary to cut down, to re- 
 arrange, and to rewrite whole passages of an essay. Gib- 
 bon wrote his ' Memoirs ' six times, and the first chapter of 
 his ' History ' three times. Beginners are always slow to 
 prune or cast away any thought or expression which may 
 have cost labor. They forget that brevity is no sign of 
 thoughtlessness. Much consideration is needed to com- 
 press the details of any subject into small compass. Es- 
 sences are more difficult to prepare, and therefore more 
 valuable, than weak solutions. Pliny wrote to one of his 
 friends, ' I have not time to write you a short letter, there- 
 fore I have written you a long one.' Apparent elaborate- 
 ness is always distasteful and weak. Vividness and strength 
 are the product of an easy command of those small trench- 
 ant Saxon monosyllables which abound in the English lan- 
 guage." "Leisure Hour." 
 
 "As a rule, the student will do well to banish for 
 the present all thought of ornament or elegance, and to 
 aim only at expressing himself plainly and clearly. The 
 best ornament is always that which comes unsought. Let 
 him not beat about the bush, but go straight to the point. 
 Let him remember that what is written is meant to be 
 read ; that time is short ; and that other things being 
 equal the fewer words the better. . . . Repetition is a far
 
 ;8 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 less serious fault than obscurity. Young writers are often 
 unduly afraid of repeating the same word, and require to 
 be reminded that it is always better to use the right word 
 over again than to replace it by a wrong one and a word 
 which is liable to be misunderstood is a wrong one. A 
 frank repetition of a word has even sometimes a kind of 
 charm as bearing the stamp of truth, the foundation of all 
 excellence of style." Hall. 
 
 " A young writer is afraid to be simple ; he has no 
 faith in beauty unadorned, hence he crowds his sentences 
 with superlatives. In his estimation, turgidity passes for 
 eloquence, and simplicity is but another name for that 
 which is weak and unmeaning." George Washington 
 Moon. 
 
 Honorable. See REVEREND. 
 
 How. " I have heard how in Italy one is beset on all 
 sides by beggars": read, "heard that." "I have heard 
 how some critics have been pacified with claret and a sup- 
 per, and others laid asleep with soft notes of flattery." Dr. 
 Johnson. The how in this sentence also should be that. 
 How means the manner in which. We may, therefore, 
 say, " I have heard hoiu he went about it to circumvent 
 you." 
 
 " And it is good judgment alone can dictate how far 
 to proceed in it and when to stop." Cobbett comments 
 on this sentence in this wise : "Dr. Watts is speaking heie 
 of writing. In such a case, an adverb, like how far, ex- 
 pressive of longitudinal space, introduces a rhetotical figure ; 
 for the plain meaning is, that judgment will dictate how 
 much to write on it and not how far to proceed in it. The 
 figure, however, is very proper and much better than the 
 literal words. But when a figure is begun it should be car- 
 ried on throughout, which is not the case here ; for the
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 79 
 
 Doctor begins with a figure of longitudinal space and ends 
 with a figure of time. It should have been, where to stop. 
 Or, how long to proceed in it and when to stop. To tell a 
 man how far he is to go into the Western countries of 
 America, and when he is to stop, is a very different thing 
 from telling him how far he is to go and where he is to 
 stop. I have dwelt thus on this distinction for the purpose 
 of putting you on the watch and guarding you against con- 
 founding figures. The less you use them the better, till 
 you understand more about them." 
 
 Humanitarianism. This word, in its original, theo- 
 logical sense, means the doctrine that denies the godhead 
 of Jesus Christ, and avers that he was possessed of a hu- 
 man nature only ; a humanitarian, therefore, in the theo- 
 logical sense, is one who believes this doctrine. The word 
 and its derivatives are, however, nowadays, both in this 
 country and in England, most used in a humane, philan- 
 thropic sense ; thus, " The audience enthusiastically en- 
 dorsed the humanitarianism of his eloquent discourse." 
 Hatton. 
 
 Hung. See HANGED. 
 
 Hurry. Though widely different in meaning, both the 
 verb and the noun hurry are continually used for haste and 
 hasten. Hurry implies not only haste, but haste with con- 
 fusion, flurry ; while haste implies only rapidity of action, 
 an eager desire to make progress, and, unlike hurry, is not 
 incompatible with deliberation and dignity. It is often 
 wise to hasten in the affairs of life ; but, as it is never wise 
 to proceed without forethought and method, it is never 
 wise to hurry. Sensible people, then, may be often in 
 haste, but are never in a hurry ; and we tell others to make 
 haste, and not to hurry up. 
 
 Hyperbole. The magnifying of things beyond their
 
 80 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 natural limits is called hyperbole. Language that signifies, 
 literally, more than the exact truth, more than is really in- 
 tended to be represented, by which a thing is represented 
 greater or less, better or worse than it really is, is said to 
 be hyperbolical. Hyperbole is exaggeration. 
 
 " Our common forms of compliment are almost all of 
 them extravagant hyperboles" Blair. 
 
 Some examples are the following : 
 " Rivers of blood and hills of slain." 
 " They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than 
 
 lions." 
 
 " The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, 
 And trembling Tiber div'd beneath his bed." 
 " So frowned the mighty combatants, that hell 
 Grew darker at their frown." 
 
 " I saw their chief tall as a rock of ice ; his spear the 
 blasted fir ; his shield the rising moon ; he sat on the shore 
 like a cloud of mist on a hill." 
 
 Ice-cream Ice-water. As for ice-cream, there is no 
 such thing, as ice-cream would be the product of frozen 
 cream, i. e., cream made from ice by melting. What is 
 called ice-cream is cream iced ; hence, properly, iced cream 
 and not ice-cream. The product of melted ice is zV^-water, 
 whether it be cold or warm ; but water made cold with ice 
 is iced water, and not ice-water. 
 
 If. "I doubt if this will ever reach you " : say, " I 
 doubt whether this will ever reach you." 
 
 HI. See SICK. 
 
 Illy. It will astonish not a few to learn that there is 
 no such word as illy. The form of the adverb, as well as 
 of the adjective and the noun, is ill. A thing is ill formed, 
 or ill done, or ill made, or ill constructed, or ill put to. 
 gether.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 8l 
 
 * /// fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay." Goldsmith. 
 
 Immodest. This adjective and its synonyms, indecent 
 and indelicate, are often used without proper discrimination 
 being made in their respective meanings. Indecency and 
 immodesty are opposed to morality : the former in externals, 
 as dress, words, and looks ; the latter in conduct and dis- 
 position. "Indecency" says Crabb, "may be a partial, 
 immodesty is a positive and entire breach of the moral law. 
 Indecency is less than immodesty, but more than indelicacy" 
 It is indecent for a man to marry again very soon after the 
 death of his wife. It is indelicate for any one to obtrude 
 himself upon another's retirement. It is indecent for wom- 
 en to expose their persons as do some whom we can not 
 call immodest. 
 
 " Immodest words admit of no defense, 
 For want of decency is want of sense." 
 
 Earl of Roscommon. 
 
 Impropriety. As a rhetorical term, denned as an 
 error in using words in a sense different from their recog- 
 nized signification. 
 
 Impute. Non-painstaking writers not unfrequently use 
 impute instead of ascribe. " The numbers [of blunders] 
 that have been imputed to him are endless." " Appletons' 
 Journal." The use of impute in this connection is by no 
 means indefensible ; still it would have been better to use 
 ascribe. 
 
 In our midst. The phrases in our midst and in their 
 midst are generally supposed to be of recent introduction ; 
 and, though they have been used by some respectable 
 writers, they nevertheless find no favor with those who 
 study propriety in the use of language. To the phrase 
 in the midst no one objects. " Jesus came and stood
 
 82 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 in the midst." " There was a hut in the midst of the 
 forest." 
 
 In respect of. " The deliberate introduction of in- 
 correct forms, whether by the coinage of new or the revival 
 of obsolete and inexpressive syntactical combinations, ought 
 to be resisted even in trifles, especially where it leads to 
 the confusion of distinct ideas. An example of this is the 
 recent use of the adverbial phrases in respect of, in regard 
 of, for in or with respect to, or regard to. This innovation 
 is without any syntactical ground, and ought to be con- 
 demned and avoided as a mere grammatical crotchet." 
 George P. Marsh, " Lectures on the English Language," 
 p. 660. 
 
 In so far as. A phrase often met with, and in which 
 the in is superfluous. "A want of proper opportunity 
 would suffice, in so far as the want could be shown." " We 
 are to act up to the extent of our knowledge ; but, in so far 
 as our knowledge falls short," etc. 
 
 Inaugurate. This word, which means to install in 
 office with certain ceremonies, is made, by many lovers of 
 big words, to do service for begin; but the sooner these 
 rhetorical high-fliers stop inaugurating and content them- 
 selves with simply beginning the things they are called 
 upon to do in the ordinary routine of daily life, the sooner 
 they will cease to set a very bad example. 
 
 Indecent. See IMMODEST. 
 
 Index expurgatorius. William Cullen Bryant, who 
 was a careful student of English, while he was editor of the 
 " New York Evening Post," sought to prevent the writers 
 for that paper from using " over and above (for ' more 
 than ') ; artiste (for ' artist ') ; aspirant ; authoress ; beat (for 
 defeat ') ; bagging (for ' capturing ') ; balance (for ' remain- 
 der') ; banquet (for ' dinner' or ' supper') ; bogus ; casket
 
 THE VERBALIST. 83 
 
 (for ' coffin ') ; claimed (for ' asserted ') ; collided ; com- 
 mence (for ' begin ') ; compete ; cortege (for ' procession ') ; 
 COtemporary (for ' contemporary ') ; couple (for ' two ') ; 
 darky (for ' negro ') ; day before yesterday (for ' the day 
 before yesterday ') ; debut ; decrease (as a verb) ; democ- 
 racy (applied to a political party) ; develop (for ' expose ') ; 
 devouring element (for ' fire ') ; donate ; employe ; enacted 
 (for ' acted ') ; indorse (for ' approve ') ; en route ; esq. ; 
 graduate (for ' is graduated ') ; gents (for ' gentlemen ') ; 
 ' Hon.' ; House (for ' House of Representatives ') ; hum- 
 bug ; inaugurate (for ' begin ') ; in our midst ; item (for 
 ' particle, extract, or paragraph ') ; is being done, and all 
 passives of this form ; jeopardize ; jubilant (for ' rejoicing ') ; 
 juvenile (for ' boy ') ; lady (for ' wife ') ; last (for ' latest ') ; 
 lengthy (for 'long'); leniency (for 'lenity'); loafer; loan 
 or loaned (for ' lend ' or ' lent ') ; located ; majority (relating 
 to places or circumstances, for ' most ') ; Mrs. President, 
 Mrs. Governor, Mrs. General, and all similar titles ; mutual 
 (for 'common'); official (for 'officer'); ovation; on yes- 
 terday ; over his signature ; pants (for ' pantaloons ') ; par- 
 ties (for ' persons ') ; partially (for ' partly ') ; past two weeks 
 (for ' last two weeks, and all similar expressions relating to 
 a definite time) ; poetess ; portion (for ' part ') ; posted (for 
 ' informed ') ; progress (for ' advance ') ; reliable (for ' trust- 
 worthy ') ; rendition (for ' performance ') ; repudiate (for 
 ' reject ' or ' disown ') ; retire (as an active verb) ; Rev. (for 
 ' the Rev.') ; role (for ' part ') ; roughs ; rowdies ; secesh ; 
 sensation (for ' noteworthy event ') ; standpoint (for ' point 
 of view ') ; start, in the sense of setting out ; state (for 
 ' say ') ; taboo ; talent (for ' talents ' or ' ability ') ; talented ; 
 tapis ; the deceased ; war (for ' dispute ' or ' disagreement ')." 
 This index is offered here as a curiosity rather than as 
 a guide, though in the main it might safely be used as
 
 84 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 such. No valid reason, however, can be urged for discour- 
 aging the use of several words in the list ; the words aspir- 
 ant, banquet, casket, compete, decrease, progress, start, 
 talented, and deceased, for example. 
 
 Indicative and Subjunctive. " ' I see the signal,' is 
 unconditional ; ' z/ I see the signal,' is the same fact ex- 
 pressed in the form of a condition. The one form is said 
 to be in the indicative mood, the mood that simply states 
 or indicates the action ; the other form is in the subjunctive, 
 conditional, or conjunctive mood. There is sometimes a 
 slight variation made in English, to show that an affirma- 
 tion is made as a condition. The mood is called ' subjunc- 
 tive,' because the affirmation is subjoined to another affirma- 
 tion : ' If I see t/ie signal, I will call out.' 
 
 " Such forms as ' I may see,' ' I can see,' have sometimes 
 been considered as a variety of mood, to which the name 
 ' Potential ' is given. But this can not properly be main- 
 tained. There is no trace of any inflection corresponding 
 to this meaning, as we find with the subjunctive. Moreover, 
 such a mood would have itself to be subdivided into indica- 
 tive and subjunctive forms : ' I may go,' ' if I may go.' 
 And further, we might proceed to constitute other moods 
 on the same analogy, as, for example, an obligatory mood 
 ' I must go,' or ' I ought to go' ; a mood of resolution 
 ' I will go, you shall go ' ; a mood of gratification ' I am 
 delighted to go ' ; of deprecation ' I am grieved to go.' 
 The only difference in the two last instances is the use of 
 the sign of the infinitive ' to,' which does not occur after 
 ' may,' ' can,' ' must,' ' ought,'' etc. ; but that is not an 
 essential difference. Some grammarians consider the form 
 ' I do go ' a separate mood, and term it the emphatic mood. 
 But all the above objections apply to it likewise, as well as 
 many others." Bain. See SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 85 
 
 Individual. This word is often most improperly used 
 for person ; as, " The individual I saw was not aver forty " ; 
 " There were several individuals on board that I had never 
 seen before." Individual means, etymologically, that which 
 can not be divided, and is used, in speaking of things as 
 well as of persons, to express unity. It is opposed to the 
 whole, or that which is divisible into parts. 
 
 Indorse. Careful writers generally discountenance the 
 use of indorse in the sense of sanction, approve, applaud. 
 In this signification it is on the list of prohibited words in 
 some of our newspaper offices. " The following rules are 
 indorsed by nearly all writers upon this subject." Dr. 
 Townsend. It is plain that the right word to use here is 
 approved. " The public will heartily indorse the sentiments 
 uttered by the court." New York " Evening Telegram." 
 " The public will heartily approve the sentiments expressed 
 by the court," is what the sentence should be. 
 
 Infinitive Mood. When we can choose, it is generally 
 better to use the verb in the infinitive than in the participial 
 form. "Ability being in general the power of doing" etc. 
 Say, to do. " I desire to reply ... to the proposal of sub- 
 stituting a tax upon land values . . . and making \\i\s tax, as 
 near [nearly] as may be, equal to rent," etc. Say, to substi- 
 tute and to make. " This quality is of prime importance 
 when the chief object is the imparting of knowledge." Say, 
 to impart. 
 
 Initiate. This is a pretentious word, which, with its 
 derivatives, many persons especially those who like to be 
 grandiloquent use, when homely English would serve their 
 turn much better. 
 
 Innumerable Number. A repetitional expression to be 
 avoided. We may say innumerable times, or numberless times, 
 but we should not say an innumerable number of times.
 
 86 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Interrogation. The rhetorical figure that asks a ques- 
 tion in order to emphasize the reverse of what is asked is 
 called interrogation ; as, " Do we mean to submit to this 
 measure ? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we our- 
 selves, our country and its rights, shall be trampled on ? " 
 
 " Doth God pervert judgment ? or doth the Almighty 
 pervert justice ? " 
 
 Introduce. See PRESENT. 
 
 Irony. That mode of speech in which what is meant 
 is contrary to the literal meaning of the words in which 
 praise is bestowed when censure is intended is called irony, 
 Irony is a kind of delicate sarcasm or satire raillery, 
 mockery. 
 
 " In writings of humor, figures are sometimes used of so 
 delicate a nature that it shall often happen that some people 
 will see things in a direct contrary sense to what the author 
 and the majority of the readers understand them : to such 
 the most innocent irony may appear irreligion." Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 Irritate. See AGGRAVATE. 
 
 Is being built. A tolerable idea of the state of the dis- 
 cussion regarding the propriety of using the locution is 
 being built, and all like expressions, will, it is hoped, be 
 obtained from the following extracts. The Rev. Peter 
 Bullions, in his " Grammar of the English Language," says : 
 
 " There is properly no passive form, in English, corre- 
 sponding to the progressive form in the active voice, except 
 where it is made by the participle ing, in a passive sense ; 
 thus, ' The house is building ' ; ' The garments are making '; 
 ' Wheat is selling,' etc. An attempt has been made by 
 some grammarians, of late, to banish such expressions from 
 the language, though they have been used in all time past 
 by the best writers, and to justify and defend a clumsy sole-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 87 
 
 cism, which has been recently introduced chiefly through 
 the newspaper press, but which has gained such currency, 
 and is becoming so familiar to the ear, that it seems likely 
 to prevail, with all its uncouthness and deformity. I refer 
 to such expressions as ' The house is being built ' ; ' The 
 letter is being written ' ; ' The mine is being worked ' ; 
 ' The news is being telegraphed,' etc., etc. 
 
 " This mode of expression had no existence in the lan- 
 guage till within the last fifty years ^ This, indeed, would 
 not make the expression wrong, were it otherwise unexcep- 
 tionable ; but its recent origin shows that it is not, as is 
 pretended, a necessary form. 
 
 " This form of expression, when analyzed, is found not 
 to express what it is intended to express, and would be used 
 only by such as are either ignorant of its import or are 
 careless and loose in their use of language. To make this 
 manifest, let it be considered, first, that there is no progres- 
 sive form of the verb to be, and no need of it ; hence, there 
 is no such expression in English as is being. Of course the 
 expression *is being built,' for example, is not a compound 
 of i-f 6eing-a.nd built, but of is and being built ; that is, of 
 the verb to be and the present participle passive. Now, let 
 it be observed that the only verbs in which the present 
 participle passive expresses a continued action are those 
 mentioned above as the first class, in which the regular 
 passive form expresses a continuance of the action ; as, is 
 loved, is desired, etc., and in which, of course, the form in 
 question (is being built) is not required. Nobody would 
 think of saying, 'He is being loved'; 'This result is 
 being desired.' 
 
 " The use of this form is justified only by condemning 
 an established usage of the language ; namely, the passive 
 * Bullions' " Grammar " was published in 1867.
 
 88 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 sense in some verbs of the participle in ing. In reference 
 to this it is flippantly asked, ' What does the house 
 build ? ' ' What does the letter write ? ' etc. taking for 
 granted, without attempting to prove, that the participle in 
 ing can not have a passive sense in any verb. The follow- 
 ing are a few examples from writers of the best reputation, 
 which this novelty would condemn : ' While the ceremony 
 was performing.' Tom. Brown. ' The court was then 
 holding.' Sir G. McKenzie. ' And still be doing, never 
 done.' Butler. ' The books are selling.' Allen's ' Gram- 
 mar.' ' To know nothing of what is transacting in the 
 regions above us.' Dr. Blair. ' The spot where this new 
 and strange tragedy was acting.' E. Everett. ' The for- 
 tress was building." Irving. ' An attempt is making in 
 the English parliament.' D. Webster. ' The church now 
 erecting in the city of New York.' ' N. A. Review.' 
 ' These things were transacting in England.' Bancroft. 
 
 " This new doctrine is in opposition to the almost unani- 
 mous judgment of the most distinguished grammarians 
 and critics, who have considered the subject, and expressed 
 their views concerning it. The following are a specimen : 
 Expressions of this kind are condemned by some critics; 
 but the usage is unquestionably of far better authority, and 
 (according to my apprehension) in far better taste, than the 
 more complex phraseology which some late writers adopt 
 in its stead ; as, " The books are now being sold." ' Goold 
 Brown. ' As to the notion of introducing a new and more 
 complex passive form of conjugation, as, " The bridge is 
 being built" " The bridge was being built," and so forth, it is 
 one of the most absurd and monstrous innovations ever 
 thought of. " The work is now being published" is cer- 
 tainly no better English than, " The work was being pub' 
 lished, has been being published, had been being published,
 
 THE VERBALIST. 89 
 
 shall or -will be being published, shall or will have been being 
 published" and so on through all the moods and tenses. 
 What a language shall we have when our verbs are thus 
 conjugated ! ' Brown's ' Gr. of Eng. Gr.,' p. 361. De War 
 observes : ' The participle in ing is also passive in many 
 instances; as, "The house is building," "I heard of a 
 plan forming," ' etc. Quoted in ' F razee's Grammar,' p. 
 49. ' It would be an absurdity, indeed, to give up the only 
 way we have of denoting the incomplete state of action by 
 a passive form (viz., by the participle in ing in the passive 
 sense).' Arnold's 'English Grammar,' p. 46. ' The pres- 
 ent participle is often used passively ;. as, "The ship is 
 building." The form of expression, is bdng built, is being 
 committed, etc., is almost universally condemned by gram- 
 marians, but it is sometimes met with in respectable writers ; 
 it occurs most frequently in newspaper paragraphs and in 
 hasty compositions. See Worcester's " Universal and Criti- 
 cal Dictionary."' Weld's 'Grammar,' pp. 118 and 180. 
 'When we say, "The house is building," the advocates of 
 the new theory ask, " Building what ? " We might ask, in 
 turn, when you say, " The field ploughs well,"" Ploughs 
 what ? " " Wheat sells well," ' ' Sells what ? " If usage al- 
 lows us to say, " Wheat sells at a dollar," in a sense that is 
 not active, why may we not say, " Wheat is selling at a dol- 
 lar," in a sense that is not active ? ' Hart's ' Grammar,' 
 p. 76. ' The prevailing practice of the best authors is in 
 favor of the simple form ; as, " The house is building." ' 
 Wells' ' School Grammar,' p. 148. ' Several other ex- 
 pressions of this sort now and then occur, such as the new- 
 fangled and most uncouth solecism " is being done" for the 
 good old English idiom " is doing " an absurd periphrasis 
 driving out a pointed and pithy turn of the English Ian- 
 guage.' ' N. A. Review,' quoted by Mr. Wells, p. 148.
 
 pb THE VERBALIST. 
 
 ' The phrase, " is being built," and others of a similar kind, 
 have been for a few years insinuating themselves into our 
 language ; still they are not English.' Harrison's ' Rise, 
 Progress, and Present Structure of the English Language.' 
 ' This mode of expression [the house is being built] is be- 
 coming quite common. It is liable, however, to several 
 important objections. It appears formal and pedantic. It 
 has not, as far as I know, the support of any respectable 
 grammarian. The easy and natural expression is, " The 
 house is building."' Prof. J. W. Gibbs." 
 
 Mr. Richard Grant White, in his "Words and Their 
 Uses," expresses his opinion of the locution is being in this 
 wise : " In bad eminence, at the head of those intruders in 
 language which to many persons seem to be of established 
 respectability, but the right of which to be at all is not fully 
 admitted, stands out the form of speech is being done, or 
 rather, is being, which, about seventy or eighty years ago, 
 began to affront the eye, torment the ear, and assault the 
 common sense of the speaker of plain and idiomatic Eng- 
 lish." Mr. White devotes thirty pages of his book to the 
 discussion of the subject, and adduces evidence that is 
 more than sufficient to convince those who are content with 
 an ex parte examination that " it can hardly be that such 
 an incongruous and ridiculous form of speech as is being 
 done was contrived by a man who, by any stretch of the 
 name, should be included among grammarians." 
 
 Mr. George P. Marsh, in his " Lectures on the English 
 Language," says that the deviser of the locution in question 
 was "some grammatical pretender," and that it is "an 
 awkward neologism, which neither convenience, intelli- 
 gibility, nor syntactical congruity demands." 
 
 To these gentlemen, and to those who are of their way 
 of thinking with regard to is being, Dr. Fitzedward Hall
 
 THE VERBALIST. gi 
 
 replies at some length, in an article published in " Scribner's 
 Monthly" for April, 1872. Dr. Hall writes : 
 
 " ' All really well educated in the English tongue la- 
 ment the many innovations introduced into our language 
 from America ; and I doubt if more than one of these 
 novelties deserve acceptation. That one is, substituting a 
 compound participle for an active verb used in a neuter 
 signification : for instance, " The house is being built" in- 
 stead of, " The house is building!' ' Such is the assertion 
 and such is the opinion of some anonymous luminary,* 
 who, for his liberality in welcoming a supposed American- 
 ism, is somewhat in advance of the herd of his countrymen. 
 Almost any popular expression which is considered as a 
 novelty, a Briton is pretty certain to assume, off-hand, to 
 have originated on our side of the Atlantic. Of the asser- 
 tion I have quoted, no proof is offered ; and there is little 
 probability that its author had any to offer. ' Are being," 
 in the phrase ' are being thrown up,' f is spoken of in ' The 
 North American Review ' \ as ' an outrage upon English 
 idiom, "to be detested, abhorred, execrated, and given 
 over to six thousand " penny-paper editors ' ; and the fact 
 is, that phrases of the form here pointed at have hitherto 
 enjoyed very much less favor with us than with the Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 " As lately as 1860, Dr. Worcester, referring to is being 
 built, etc., while acknowledging that ' this new form has 
 
 * " L. W. K., CLK., LL. D., EX. SCH., T. C., D. Of this reverend 
 gentleman's personality I know nothing. He does not say exactly 
 what he means ; but what he means is, yet, unmistakable. The ex- 
 tract given above is from ' Public Opinion,' January 20, 1866." 
 
 t " The analysis, taken for granted in this quotation, of 'are being 
 thrown up ' into ' are being ' and ' thrown up ' will be dealt with in 
 the sequel, and shown to be untenable." 
 
 \ " Vol. xlv, p. 504 (1837)."
 
 92 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 been used by some respectable writers,' speaks of it as 
 having ' been introduced ' ' within a few years.' Mr. 
 Richard Grant White, by a most peculiar process of ra- 
 tiocination, endeavors to prove that what Dr. Worcester 
 "calls 'this new form' came into existence just fifty-six 
 years ago. He premises that in Jarvis's translation of 
 4 Don Quixote,' published in 1742, there occurs 'were car- 
 rying,' and that this, in the edition of 1818, is sophisticated 
 into ' were being carried.' ' This change,' continues our 
 logician, ' and the appearance of is being with a perfect 
 participle in a very few books published between A. D. 1815 
 and 1820, indicate the former period as that of the origin 
 of this phraseology, which, although more than half a cen- 
 tury old, is still pronounced a novelty as well as a nui- 
 sance.' 
 
 " Who, in the next place, devised our modern imper- 
 fects passive ? The question is not, originally, of my 
 asking ; but, as the learned are at open feud on the sub- 
 ject, it should not be passed by in silence. Its deviser is, 
 more than likely, as undiscoverable as the name of the 
 valiant antediluvian who first tasted an oyster. But the 
 deductive character of the miscreant is another thing ; and 
 hereon there is a war between the philosophers. Mr. G. 
 P. Marsh, as if he had actually spotted the wretched creat- 
 ure, passionately and categorically denounces him as ' some 
 grammatical pretender.' ' But,' replies Mr. White, ' that 
 it is the work of any grammarian is more than doubtful. 
 Grammarians, with all their faults, do not deform language 
 with fantastic solecisms, or even seek to enrich it with new 
 and startling verbal combinations. They rather resist 
 novelty, and devote themselves to formulating that which 
 use has already established.' In the same page with this, 
 Mr. White compliments the great unknown as ' some prc-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 93 
 
 cise and feeble-minded soul,' and elsewhere calls him ' some 
 pedantic writer of the last generation.' To add even one 
 word toward a solution of the knotty point here indicated 
 transcends, I confess, my utmost competence. It is pain- 
 ful to picture to one's self the agonizing emotions with 
 which certain philologists would contemplate an authentic 
 effigy of the Attila of speech who, by his is being built or 
 is being done, first offered violence to the whole circle of 
 the proprieties. So far as I have observed, the first granir 
 mar that exhibits them is that of Mr. R. S. Skillern, M. A., 
 the first edition of which was published at Gloucester in 
 1802. Robert Southey had not, on the gth of October, 
 1795, been out of his minority quite two months when, 
 evidently delivering himself in a way that had already be- 
 come familiar enough, he wrote of ' a fellow whose utter- 
 most upper grinder is being torn out by the roots by g 
 mutton-fisted barber.' * This is in a letter. But repeated 
 instances of the same kind of expression are seen in Southey's 
 graver writings. Thus, in his ' Colloquies,' etc.,f we read 
 of ' such [nunneries] as at this time are being reestablished' 
 
 "'While my hand was being drest by Mr. Young, I 
 spoke for the first time,' wrote Coleridge, in March, 1797. 
 
 " Charles Lamb speaks of realities which ' are being 
 acted before us,' and of ' a man who is being strangled' 
 
 " Walter Savage Landor, in an imaginary conversation, 
 represents Pitt as saying : ' The man who possesses them 
 may read Swedenborg and Kant while he is being- tossed in 
 a blanket.' Again : ' I have seen nobles, men and women, 
 
 The Life and Correspondence of the late Robert Southey,* 
 vol. i, p. 249." 
 
 t " Vol. i, p. 338. ' A student who is being crammed'' ' that verb 
 if eternally being declined' ' The Doctor,' pp. 38 and 40 (mono- 
 tome ed.)."
 
 94 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 kneeling in the street before these bishops, when no cere- 
 mony of the Catholic Church was being performed' Also, 
 in a translation from Catullus : ' Some criminal is being 
 tried for murder.' 
 
 " Nor does Mr. De Quincey scruple at such English as 
 ' made and being made' ' the bride that was being -married 
 to him,' and ' the shafts of Heaven were even now being 
 forged' On one occasion he writes, ' Not done, not even 
 (according to modern purism) being done ' ; as if ' purism ' 
 meant exactness, rather than the avoidance of neoterism. 
 
 " I need, surely, name no more, among the dead, who 
 found is being built, or the like, acceptable. ' Simple- 
 minded common people and those of culture were alike 
 protected against it by their attachment to the idiom of 
 their mother tongue, with which they felt it to be directly 
 at variance.' So Mr. White informs us. But the writers 
 whom I have quoted are formidable exceptions. Even 
 Mr. White will scarcely deny to them the title of ' people 
 of culture.' 
 
 " So much for offenders past repentance ; and we all 
 know that the sort of phraseology under consideration is 
 daily becoming more and more common. The best written 
 of the English reviews, magazines, and journals are perpet- 
 ually marked by it ; and some of the choicest of living 
 English writers employ it freely. Among these, it is 
 enough if I specify Bishop Wilberforce and Mr. Charles 
 Reade.* 
 
 " Extracts from Bishop Jewel downward being also given, 
 Lord Macaulay, Mr. Dickens, 'The Atlantic Monthly,' and 
 The Brooklyn Eagle ' are alleged by Mr. White in proof 
 
 * " In ' Put Yourself in his Place,' chapter x, he writes : ' She 
 basked in the present delight, and looked as if she was being taken to 
 heaven by an angel.' "
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 95 
 
 that people still use such phrases as ' Chelsea Hospital was 
 building? and ' the train was preparing.' ' Hence we see,' 
 he adds,* ' that the form is being done, is being made, is 
 being built, lacks the support of authoritative usage from 
 the period of the earliest classical English to the present 
 day.' I fully concur with Mr. White in regarding ' neither 
 "The Brooklyn Eagle" nor Mr. Dickens as a very high 
 authority in the use of language ' ; yet, when he has re- 
 nounced the aid of these contemned straws, what has he to 
 rest his inference on, as to the present day, but the practice 
 of Lord Macaulay and ' The Atlantic Monthly ' ? Those 
 who think fit will bow to the dictatorship here prescribed 
 to them ; but there may be those with whom the classic 
 sanction of Southey, Coleridge, and Landor will not be 
 wholly void of weight. All scholars are aware that, to 
 convey the sense of the imperfects passive, our ancestors, 
 centuries ago, prefixed, with is, etc., in, afterward corrupted 
 into a, to a verbal substantive. ' The house is in building' 
 could be taken to mean nothing but tzdes cedijicantur ; 
 and, when the in gave place to a,\ it was still manifest 
 enough, from the context, that building was governed by a 
 preposition. The second stage of change, however, namely, 
 when 'the a was omitted, entailed, in many cases, great 
 danger of confusion. In the early part of the last century, 
 when English was undergoing what was then thought to 
 be purification, the polite world substantially resigned is 
 a-building to the vulgar. Toward the close of the same 
 century, when, under the influence of free thought, it began 
 to be felt that even ideas had a right to faithful and une- 
 
 * " ' Words,' etc., p. 340." 
 
 t " Thomas Fuller writes : ' At his arrival, the last stake of the 
 Christians was on losing? ' The Historic of the Holy Warre,' p. 218 
 (ed. 1647)."
 
 9 6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 quivocal representation, a just resentment of ambiguity was 
 evidenced in the creation of is being built. The lament is 
 too late that the instinct of reformation did not restore the 
 old form. It has gone forever ; and we are now to make 
 the best of its successors. ' " The brass is forging ;" ' in the 
 ppinion of Dr. Johnson, is ' a vicious expression, probably 
 corrupted from a phrase more pure, but now somewhat 
 obsolete, ..." the brass is a-forging." ' Yet, with a true 
 Tory's timidity and aversion to change, it is not surprising 
 that he went on preferring what he found established, 
 vicious as it confessedly was, to the end. But was the 
 expression ' vicious ' solely because it was a corruption ? 
 In 1787 William Beckford wrote as follows of the fortune- 
 tellers of Lisbon : ' / saw one dragging into light, as I 
 passed by the ruins of a palace thrown down by the earth- 
 quake. Whether a familiar of the Inquisition was griping 
 her in his clutches, or whether she was taking to account by 
 some disappointed votary, I will not pretend to answer." 
 Are the expressions here italicized either perspicuous or 
 graceful ? Whatever we are to have in their place, we 
 should be thankful to get quit of them. 
 
 " Inasmuch as, concurrently with building for the active 
 participle, and being built for the corresponding passive 
 participle, we possessed the former, with is prefixed, as the 
 active present imperfect, it is in rigid accordance with the 
 symmetry of our verb that, to construct the passive present- 
 imperfect, we prefix is to the latter, producing the form is 
 being built. Such, in its greatest simplicity, is the pro- 
 cedure which, as will be seen, has provoked a very levanter 
 of ire and vilification. But anything that is new will be 
 excepted to by minds of a certain order. Their tremulous 
 and impatient dread of removing ancient landmarks even 
 disqualifies them for thoroughly investigating its character
 
 THE VERBALIST. 97 
 
 and pretensions. In has built and will build, we find the 
 active participle perfect and the active infinitive subjoined 
 to auxiliaries ; and so, in has been built and mill be built, 
 the passive participle perfect and the passive infinitive are 
 subjoined to auxiliaries. In is building and is being built, 
 we have, in strict harmony with the constitution of the per- 
 fect and future tenses, an auxiliary followed by the active 
 participle present and the passive participle present. Built 
 is determined as active or passive by the verbs which qualify 
 it, have and be ; and the grammarians are right in consid- 
 ering it, when embodied in has built, as active, since its 
 analogue, embodied in has been built, is the exclusively 
 passive been built. Besides this, has been + btalt would 
 signify something like has existed, built* which is plainly 
 neuter. We are debarred, therefore, from such an analysis ; 
 and, by parity of reasoning, we may not resolve is being 
 built into is being -\-built. It must have been an inspira- 
 tion of analogy, felt or unfelt, that suggested the form I 
 am discussing. Is being -\-built, as it can mean, pretty 
 nearly, only exists, built, would never have been proposed 
 as adequate to convey any but a neuter sense ; whereas it 
 was perfectly natural for a person aiming to express a pas- 
 sive sense to prefix is to the passive concretion being built. \ 
 " The analogical justification of is being built which I 
 have brought forward is so obvious that, as it occurred to 
 
 * " I express myself in this manner because I distinguish between bt 
 and exist" 
 
 t " Samuel Richardson writes : ' Jenny, who attends me here, has 
 more than once hinted to me that Miss Jervis loves to sit up late, 
 either reading or being read to by Anne, who, though she reads well, 
 is not fond of the task.' ' Sir Charles Grandison,' vol. iii, p. 46 (ed. 
 I754)- 
 
 " The transition is very slight by which we pass from ' sits being 
 read to ' to ' is being read to.' "
 
 98 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 myself more than twenty years ago, so it must have occurred 
 spontaneously to hundreds besides. It is very singular that 
 those who, like Mr. Marsh and Mr. White, have pondered 
 long and painfully over locutions typified by is being built, 
 should have missed the real ground of their grammatical 
 defensibleness, and should have warmed themselves, in their 
 opposition to them, into uttering opinions which no calm 
 judgment can accept. 
 
 " ' One who is being beaten ' is, to Archbishop Whately, 
 ' uncouth English.' ' " The bridge is being built" and other 
 phrases of the like kind, have pained the eye ' of Mr. David 
 Booth. Such phrases, according to Mr. M. Harrison, ' are 
 not English.' To Professor J. W. Gibbs ' this mode of ex- 
 pression . . . appears formal and pedantic ' ; and ' the easy 
 and natural expression is, " The house is building." ' * In 
 all this, little or nothing is discernible beyond sheer preju- 
 dice, the prejudice of those who resolve to take their stand 
 against an innovation, regardless of its utility, and who are 
 ready to find an argument against it in any random epithet 
 of disparagement provoked by unreasoning aversion. And 
 the more recent denouncers in the same line have no more 
 reason on their side than their elder brethren. 
 
 " In Mr. Marsh's estimation, is being built illustrates 
 ' corruption of language ' ; it is ' clumsy and unidiomatic ' ; 
 it is ' at best but a philological coxcombry ' ; it ' is an awk- 
 ward neologism, which neither convenience, intelligibility, 
 nor syntactical congruity demands, and the- use of which 
 ought, therefore, to be discountenanced, as an attempt at 
 the artificial improvement of the language in a point which 
 needed no amendment.' Again, ' To reject ' is building in 
 favor of the modern phrase ' is to violate the laws of Ian- 
 
 * " I am here indebted to the last edition of Dr. Worcester's ' Dic- 
 tionary,' preface, p. xxxix."
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 99 
 
 guage by an arbitrary change ; and, in this particular case, 
 the proposed substitute is at war with the genius of the 
 English tongue.' Mr. Marsh seems to have fancied that, 
 wherever he points out a beauty in is building, he points 
 out, inclusively, a blemish in is being built. 
 
 " The fervor and feeling with which Mr. White advances 
 to the charge are altogether tropical. ' The full absurdity 
 of this phrase, the essence of its nonsense, seems not to 
 have been hitherto pointed out.' It is not ' consistent with 
 reason ' ; and it is not ' conformed to the normal develop- 
 ment of the language.' It is ' a monstrosity, the illogical, 
 confusing, inaccurate, unidiomatic character of which I 
 have at some length, but yet imperfectly, set forth.' Final- 
 ly, ' In fact, it means nothing, and is the most incongruous 
 combination of words and ideas that ever attained respect- 
 able usage in any civilized language.' These be ' prave 
 'ords ' ; and it seems a pity that so much sterling vitupera- 
 tive ammunition should be expended in vain. And that it 
 is so expended thinks Mr. White himself ; for, though pass- 
 ing sentence in the spirit of a Jeffreys, he is not really on 
 the judgment-seat, but on the lowest hassock of despair. 
 As concerns the mode of expression exemplified by is being 
 built, he owns that ' to check its diffusion would be a hope- 
 less undertaking.' If so, why not reserve himself for ser- 
 vice against some evil not avowedly beyond remedy ? 
 
 " Again we read, ' Some precise and feeble-minded 
 soul, having been taught that there is a passive voice in 
 English, and that, for instance, building is an active parti- 
 ciple, and builded or built a passive, felt conscientious 
 scruples at saying " the house is building." For what could 
 the house build?" As children say at play, Mr. White 
 burns here. If it had occurred to him that the ' conscien- 
 tious scruples ' of his hypothetical, ' precise, and feeble-
 
 100 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 minded soul ' were roused by been built, not by built, I sus- 
 pect his chapter on is being built would have been much 
 shorter than it is at present, and very different. ' The 
 fatal absurdity in this phrase consists,' he tells us, ' in the 
 combination of is with being; in the making of the verb to 
 be a supplement, or, in grammarians' phrase, an auxiliary 
 to itself an absurdity so palpable, so monstrous, so ridicu- 
 lous, that it should need only to be pointed out to be 
 scouted.' * Lastly, ' The question is thus narrowed simply 
 to this, Does to be being (esse ens) mean anything more or 
 other than to be ? ' 
 
 " Having convicted Mr. White of a mistaken analysis, I 
 am not concerned with the observations which he founds 
 on his mistake. However, even if his analysis had been 
 correct, some of his arguments would avail him nothing. 
 For instance, is being built, on his understanding of it, that 
 is to say, is being + built, he represents by ens (zdificatus est, 
 as ' the supposed corresponding Latin phrase." f The Latin 
 is illegitimate ; and he infers that, therefore, the English is 
 the same. But adificans est, a translation, on the model 
 which he offers, of the active is building, is quite as illegiti- 
 mate as ens cedificatus est. By parity of non-seqttitur, we 
 are, therefore, to surrender the active is building. Assume 
 that a phrase in a given language is indefensible unless it 
 
 * " ' Words and their Uses,' p. 353." 
 
 t " ' It is being is simply equal to it is. And, in the supposed corre- 
 sponding Latin phrases, ens factus est, ens <edificatus est (the obso- 
 leteness of ens as a participle being granted), the monstrosity is not in 
 the use of ens with factus, but in that of ens with est. The absurdity 
 is, in Latin, just what it is in English, the use of is with being, the 
 making of the verb to be a complement to itself.' Ibid., pp. 354, 355. 
 
 "Apparently, Mr. White recognizes no more difference between sup- 
 plement and complement than he recognizes between be and exist, 
 See the extract I have made above, from p. 353."
 
 THE VERBALIST. 101 
 
 has its counterpart in some other language ; from the very 
 conception and definition of an idiom every idiom is ille- 
 gitimate. 
 
 " I now pass to another point. ' To be and to exist are,' 
 to Mr. White's apprehension, ' perfect synonyms, or more 
 nearly perfect, perhaps, than any two verbs in the language. 
 In some of their meanings there is a shade of difference, 
 but in others there is none whatever ; and the latter are 
 those which serve our present purpose. When we say, " He, 
 being forewarned of danger, fled," we say, " He, existing 
 forewarned of danger, fled." When we say that a thing z'j 
 done, we say that it exists done. . . . Is being done is sim- 
 ply exists existing done' But, since is and exists are equi- 
 pollent, and so being and existing, is being is the same as 
 the unimpeachable is existing. Q. non E. D. Is existing 
 ought, of course, to be no less objectionable to Mr. White 
 than is being. Just as absurd, too, should he reckon the 
 Italian sono stato, era stato, sia stato, fossi stato, saro stato, 
 sarei stato, essere stato, and essendo stato. For in Italian 
 both essere and stare are required to make up the verb sub- 
 stantive, as in Latin both esse and the offspring of fuere are 
 required ; and stare, primarily ' to stand,' is modified into 
 a true auxiliary. The alleged ' full absurdity of this phrase,' 
 to wit, is being built, ' the essence of its nonsense,' vanishes 
 thus into thin air. So I was about to comment bluntly, not 
 forgetting to regret that any gentleman's cultivation of logic 
 should fructify in the shape of irrepressible tendencies to 
 suicide. But this would be precipitate. Agreeably to one 
 of Mr. White's judicial placita, which I make no apology 
 for citing twice, ' no man who has preserved all his senses 
 will doubt for a moment that " to exist a mastiff or a mule " 
 is absolutely the same as " to be a mastiff or a mule." ' 
 Declining to admit their identity, I have not preserved all
 
 102 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 my senses ; and, accordingly though it may be in me the 
 very superfetation of lunacy I would caution the reader to 
 keep a sharp eye on my arguments, hereabouts particularly. 
 The Cretan, who, in declaring all Cretans to be liars, left 
 the question of his veracity doubtful to all eternity, fell into 
 a pit of his own digging. Not unlike the unfortunate Cre- 
 tan, Mr. White has tumbled headlong into his own snare. 
 It was, for the rest, entirely unavailing that he insisted on 
 the insanity of those who should gainsay his fundamental 
 postulate. Sanity, of a crude sort, may accept it ; and 
 sanity may put it to a use other than its propounder's. 
 
 "Mr. Marsh, after setting forth the all-sufficiency of is 
 building, in the passive sense, goes on to say : ' The re- 
 formers who object to the phrase I am defending must, in 
 consistency, employ the proposed substitute with all passive 
 participles, and in other tenses as well as the present. They 
 must say, therefore, " The subscription -paper is being missed, 
 but I know that a considerable sum is being wanted to make 
 up the amount " ; " the great Victoria Bridge has been being 
 bitilt more than two years " ; " when I reach London, the 
 ship Leviathan will be being built"; "if my orders had 
 been followed, the coat would have been being made yester- 
 day " ; " if the house had then been being built, the mortar 
 would have been being mixed" ' We may reply that, while 
 awkward instances of the old form are most abundant in 
 our literature, there is no fear that the repulsive elabora- 
 tions which have been worked out in ridicule of the new 
 forms will prove to have been anticipations of future usage. 
 There was a time when, as to their adverbs, people com- 
 pared them, to a large extent, with -er and -est, or with 
 more and most, just as their ear or pleasure dictated. They 
 wrote plainlier and plainliest, or more plainly and most 
 plainly ; and some adverbs, as early, late, often, seldom, and
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 103 
 
 soon, we still compare in a way now become anomalous. 
 And as our forefathers treated their adverbs we still treat 
 many adjectives. Furthermore, obligingness, preparedness, 
 and designedly seem quite natural ; yet we do not feel that 
 they authorize us to talk of ' the seeingness of the eye,' ' the 
 under stoodness of a sentence,' or of ' a statement acknoivl- 
 edgedly correct.' ' The now too notorious fact ' is toler- 
 able ; but ' the never to be sufficiently execrated monster 
 Bonaparte ' is intolerable. The sun may be shorn of his 
 splendor ; but we do not allow cloudy weather to shear him 
 of it. How, then, can any one claim that a man who pre- 
 fers to say is being built should say has been being built? 
 Are not awkward instances of the old form, typified by is 
 building, as easily to be picked out of extant literature as 
 sflch instances of the new form, likely ever to be used, are 
 to be invented ? And ' the reformers ' have not forsworn 
 their ears. Mr. Marsh, at p. 135 of his admirable ' Lec- 
 tures,' lays down that ' the adjective reliable, in the sense of 
 worthy of confidence, is altogether unidiomatic ' ; and yet, 
 at p. 112, he writes 'reliable evidence.' Again, at p. 396 of 
 the same work, he rules that whose, in ' I passed a house 
 whose windows were open,' is ' by no means yet fully estab- 
 lished ' ; and at p. 145 of his very learned ' Man and Na- 
 ture ' he writes ' a quadrangular pyramid, the perpendicular 
 of whose sides,' etc. Really, if his own judgments sit so 
 very loose on his practical conscience, we may, without be- 
 ing chargeable with exaction, ask of him to relax a little 
 the rigor of his requirements at the hands of his neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 " Beckford's Lisbon fortune-teller, before had into court, 
 was ' dragging into light,' and, perchance, ' was taking to ac- 
 count.' Many moderns would say and write ' bzing dragged 
 into light,' and ' was being taken to account.' But, if we
 
 104 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 are to trust the conservative critics, in comparison with ex- 
 pressions of the former pattern, those of the latter are 
 ' uncouth,' ' clumsy,' ' awkward neologisms,' ' philological 
 coxcombries,' ' formal and pedantic,' ' incongruous and ri- 
 diculous forms of speech,' ' illogical, confusing, inaccurate 
 monstrosities.' Moreover, they are neither 'consistent wilh 
 reason ' nor ' conformed to the normal development of the 
 language ' ; they are ' at war with the genius of the Eng- 
 lish tongue ' ; they are ' unidiomatic ' ; they are ' not Eng- 
 lish.' In passing, if Mr. Marsh will so define the term un- 
 idiomatic as to evince that it has any applicability to the 
 case in hand, or if he will arrest and photograph ' the gen- 
 ius of the English tongue,' so that we may know the origi- 
 nal when we meet with it, he will confer a public favor. 
 And now I submit for consideration whether the sole 
 strength of those who decry is being built and its congeners 
 does not consist in their talent for calling hard names. If 
 they have not an uneasy subconsciousness that their cause 
 is weak, they would, at least, do well in eschewing the vio- 
 lence to which, for want of something better, the advocates 
 of weak causes proverbially resort. 
 
 " I once had a friend who, for some microscopic penum- 
 bra of heresy, was charged, in the words of -his accuser, 
 with ' as near an approach to the sin against the Holy 
 Ghost as is practicable to human infirmity.' Similarly, on 
 one view, the feeble potencies of philological turpitude 
 seem to have exhibited their most consummate realization 
 in engendering is being bidlt. The supposed enormity per- 
 petrated in its production, provided it had fallen within the 
 sphere of ethics, would, at the least, have ranked, with its 
 denunciators, as a brand-new exemplification of total de- 
 pravity. But, after all, what incontestable defect in it has 
 any one succeeded in demonstrating ? Mr. White, in op-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 10 5 
 
 posing to the expression objections based on an erroneous 
 analysis, simply lays a phantom of his own evoking ; and, 
 so far as I am informed, other impugners of is being built 
 have, absolutely, no argument whatever against it over and 
 beyond their repugnance to novelty. Subjected to a little 
 untroubled contemplation, it would, I am confident, have 
 ceased long ago to be matter of controversy ; but the dust 
 of prejudice and passion, which so distempers the intellect- 
 ual vision of theologians and politicians, is seen to make, 
 with ruthless impartiality, BO exception of the perspicacity 
 of philologists. 
 
 " Prior to the evolution of is b^ing built and was being 
 built, we possessed no discriminate equivalents to (edificatur 
 and adificabatur ; is built and was built, by which they 
 were rendered, corresponding exactly to adificatus est and 
 adificatus erat. Cum cedificantur was to us the same as 
 tedificabatur. On the wealth of the Greek in expressions 
 of imperfect passive I need not dwell. With rare excep- 
 tions, the Romans were satisfied with the present-imperfect 
 and the past-imperfect ; and we, on the comparatively few 
 occasions which present themselves for expressing other im- 
 perfects, shall be sure to have recourse to the old forms 
 rather than to the new, or else to use periphrases.* The 
 purists may, accordingly, dismiss their apprehensions, es- 
 pecially as the neoterists have, clearly, a keener horrorof 
 phraseological ungainliness than themselves. One may 
 
 But those things which, being not now doing, or having not yet 
 been done, have a natural aptitude to exist hereafter, may be properly 
 said to appertain to the future.' Harris's ' Hermes,' book I, chap. 
 viii (p. 155, foot-note, ed. 1771). For Harris's being not now doing; 
 which is to translate HITJ yivo^eva, the modern school, if they pursued 
 uniformity with more of fidelity than of taste, would have to put bein% 
 not now being done. There is not much to choose between the two."
 
 106 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 have no hesitation about saying ' the house is being built,' 
 and may yet recoil from saying that ' it should have been 
 being built last Christmas ' ; and the same person just as, 
 provided he did not feel a harshness, inadequacy, and am- 
 biguity in the passive ' the house is building,' he would use 
 the expression will, more likely than not, elect is in prepa- 
 ration preferentially to is being prepared. If there are any 
 who, in their zealotry for the congruous, choose to adhere 
 to the new form in its entire range of exchangeability for 
 the old, let it be hoped that they will find, in Mr. Marsh's 
 speculative approbation of consistency, full amends for the 
 discomfort of encountering smiles or frowns. At the same 
 time, let them be mindful of the career of Mr. White, with 
 his black flag and no quarter. The dead Polonius was, in 
 Hamlet's phrase, at supper, ' not where he eats, but where 
 he is eaten.' Shakespeare, to Mr. White's thinking, in this 
 wise expressed himself at the best, and deserves not only 
 admiration therefor, but to be imitated. ' While the ark 
 was built' 'while the ark was prepared,' writes Mr. White 
 himself.* Shakespeare is commended for his ambiguous 
 is eaten, though in eating or an eating would have been not 
 only correct in his day, but, where they would have come 
 in his sentence, univocal. With equal reason a man would 
 be entitled to commendation for tearing his mutton-chops 
 with his fingers, when he might cut them up with a knife 
 and fork. ' Is eaten,' says Mr. White, ' does not mean has 
 been eaten.' Very true ; but a continuous unfinished pas- 
 sion Polonius's still undergoing manducation, to speak 
 Johnsonese was in Shakespeare's^ mind ; and his words 
 describe a passion no longer in generation. The King of 
 Denmark's lord chamberlain had no precedent in Herod, 
 when ' he was eaten of worms ' ; the original, yev6(j.evos 
 * " ' Words and their Uses,' p. 343."
 
 THE VERBALIST. 107 
 
 , yielding, but for its participle, ' he became 
 worm-eaten. ' 
 
 " Having now done with Mr. White, I am anxious, be- 
 fore taking leave of him, to record, with all emphasis, that 
 it would be the grossest injustice to write of his elegant 
 1 Life and Genius of Shakespeare,' a book which does 
 credit to American literature, in the tone which I have 
 found unavoidable in dealing with his ' Words and their 
 Uses.' " 
 
 The student of English who has honestly weighed the 
 arguments on both sides of the question, must, I believe, 
 be of opinion that our language is the richer for having 
 two forms for expressing the Progressive Passive. Further, 
 he must, I believe, be of opinion that in very many cases 
 he conforms to the most approved usage of our time by 
 employing the old form ; that, however, if he were to em- 
 ploy the old form in all cases, his meaning would some- 
 times be uncertain. 
 
 It. Cobbett discourses of this little neuter pronoun in 
 this wise : " The word it is the greatest troubler that I 
 know of in language. It is so small and so convenient that 
 few are careful enough in using it. Writers seldom spare 
 this word. Whenever they are at a loss for either a nomi- 
 native or an objective to their sentence, they, without any 
 kind of ceremony, clap in an it. A very remarkable in- 
 stance of this pressing of poor it into actual service, con- 
 trary to the laws of grammar and of sense, occurs in a 
 piece of composition, where we might, with justice, insist 
 on correctness. This piece is on the subject of grammar ; 
 it is a piece written by a Doctor of Divinity and read by 
 him to students in grammar and language in an academy ; 
 and the very sentence that I am now about to quote is 
 selected by the author of a grammar as testimony of high
 
 108 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 authority in favor of the excellence of his work. Surely, 
 if correctness be ever to be expected, it must be in a case 
 like this. I allude to two sentences in the ' Charge of the 
 Reverend Doctor Abercrombie to the Senior Class of the 
 Philadelphia Academy,' published in 1806 ; which sen- 
 tences have been selected and published by Mr. Lindley 
 Murray as a testimonial of the merits of his grammar ; and 
 which sentences are by Mr. Murray given to us in the fol- 
 lowing words : ' The unwearied exertions of this gentle- 
 man have done more toward elucidating the obscurities 
 and embellishing the structure of our language than any 
 other wtiter on the subject. Such a work has long been 
 wanted, and from the success with which it is executed, 
 can not be too highly appreciated.' 
 
 " As in the learned Doctor's opinion obscurities can be 
 elucidated, and as in the same opinion Mr. Murray is an 
 able hand at this kind of work, it would not be amiss were 
 the grammarian to try his skill upon this article from the 
 hand of his dignified eulogist ; for here is, if one may use 
 the expression, a constellation of obscurities. Our poor 
 oppressed it, which we find forced into the Doctor's service 
 in the second sentence, relates to ' such a -work,' though this 
 work is nothing that has an existence, notwithstanding it 
 is said to be ' executed' In the first sentence, the ' exer- 
 tions ' become, all of a sudden, a ' -writer' : the exertions 
 have done more than ' any other writer ' ; for, mind you, 
 it is not the gentleman that has done anything ; it is ' the 
 exertions ' that have done what is said to be done. The 
 word gentleman is in the possessive case, and has nothing 
 to do with the action of the sentence. Let us give the sen- 
 tence a turn, and the Doctor and the grammarian will hear 
 how it will sound. ' This gentleman's exertions have done 
 more ,'han any other -writer' This is on a level with ' This
 
 THE VERBALIST. 109 
 
 gentleman's Jo? has killed more hares than way other sports- 
 man! No doubt Doctor Abercrombie meant to say, ' The 
 exertions of this gentleman have done more than those of 
 any other writer. Such a work as this gentleman's has 
 long bedn wanted ; his work, seeing the successful man- 
 ner of its execution, can not be too highly commended.' 
 Meant / No doubt at all of that ! And when we hear a 
 Hampshire ploughboy say, ' Poll Cherrycheek have giv'd 
 a thick handkecher,' we know very well that he means to 
 say, ' Poll Cherrycheek has given me this handkerchief ' ; 
 and yet we are too apt to laugh at him and to call him 
 ignorant ; which is wrong, because he has no pretensions 
 to a knowledge of grammar, and he may be very skillful as 
 a ploughboy. However, we will not laugh at Doctor Aber- 
 crombie, whom I knew, many years ago, for a very kind 
 and worthy man. But, if we may, in any case, be allowed 
 to laugh at the ignorance of our fellow-creatures, that case 
 certainly does arise when we see a professed grammarian, 
 the author of voluminous precepts and examples on the 
 subject of grammar, producing, in imitation of the posses- 
 sors of valuable medical secrets, testimonials vouching for 
 the efficacy of his literary panacea, and when, in those 
 testimonials, we find most flagrant instances of bad gram- 
 mar. ^ 
 
 " However, my dear James, let this strong and striking 
 instance of the misuse of the word it serve you in the way 
 of caution. Never put an it upon paper without thinking 
 well of what you are about. When I see many its in a 
 page, I always tremble for the writer." 
 
 Jeopardize. This is a modern word which we could 
 easily do without, as it means neither more nor less than 
 its venerable progenitor to jeopard, which is greatly pre- 
 ferred by all careful writers.
 
 110 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Just going to. Instead of " I am just going to go," it U 
 better to say, " I am just about to go." 
 
 Kids. " This is another vile contraction. Habit blinds 
 people to the unseemliness of a term like this. How would 
 it sound if one should speak of silk gloves as silks ? " 
 
 Kind. See POLITE. 
 
 Knights Templars. The name of this ancient body 
 has been adopted by a branch of the Masonic fraternity, 
 but in a perverted form Knights Templar ; and this form 
 is commonly seen in print, whether referring to the old 
 knights or to their modern imitators. This doubtless is 
 due to the erroneous impression that Templar is an ad- 
 jective, and so can not take the plural form ; while in fact 
 it is a case of two nouns in apposition a double designa- 
 tion meaning Knights of the order of Templars. Hence 
 the plural should be Knights Templars, and not Knights 
 Templar. Members of the contemporaneous order of St. 
 John of Jerusalem were commonly called Knights Hos- 
 pitallers. 
 
 Lady. To use the term lady, whether in the singular 
 or in the plural, simply to designate the sex, is in the worst 
 possible taste. There is a kind of pin-feather gentility 
 which seems to have a settled aversion to using the terms 
 man and woman. Gentlemen and ladies establish their 
 claims to being called such by their bearing, and not by 
 arrogating to themselves, even indirectly, the titles. In 
 England, the title lady is properly correlative to lord ; but 
 there, as in this country, it is used as a term of complaisance, 
 and is appropriately applied to women whose lives are ex- 
 emplary, and who have received that school and home edu- 
 cation which enables them to appear to advantage in the 
 better circles of society. Such expressions as " She is a 
 fine lady, a clever lady, a well-dressed lady, a good lady, X
 
 THE VERBALIST. m 
 
 modest lady, a charitable lady, an amiable lady, a handsome 
 lady, a fascinating lady" and the like, are studiously avoided 
 by persons of refinement. Ladies say, " we women, the 
 women of America, women's apparel," and so on ; vulgar 
 women talk about " us ladies, the ladies of America, 
 ladies' apparel," and so on. If a woman of culture and 
 refinement in short, a lady is compelled from any cause 
 soever to work in a store, she is quite content to be called 
 a sales-woman ; not so, however, with your young woman 
 who, being in a store, is in a better position than ever 
 before. She, Heaven bless her ! boils with indignation 
 if she is not denominated a sales lady. Lady is often the 
 proper term to use, and then it would be very improper to 
 use any other ; but it is very certain that the terms lady 
 and gentleman are least used by those persons who are 
 most worthy of being designated by them. With a nice 
 discrimination worthy of special notice, one of our daily 
 papers recently said : " Miss Jennie Halstead, daughter of 
 the proprietor of the ' Cincinnati Commercial,' is one of the 
 most brilliant young women in Ohio." 
 
 In a late number of the " London Queen " was the fol- 
 " lowing : " The terms ladies and gentlemen become in them- 
 selves vulgarisms when misapplied, and the improper appli- 
 cation of the wrong term at the wrong time makes all the 
 difference in the world to ears polite. Thus, calling a man 
 a gentleman when he should be called a man, or speak- 
 ing of a man as a man when he should be spoken of as a 
 gentleman; or alluding to a lady as a woman when she 
 should be alluded to as a lady, or speaking of a woman 
 as a lady when she should properly be termed a woman. 
 Tact and a sense of the fitness of things decide these points, 
 there being no fixed rule to go upon to determine when a 
 man is a man or when he is a gentleman ; and, although he
 
 HZ THE VERBALIST, 
 
 is far oftener termed the one than the other, he does not 
 thereby lose his attributes of a gentleman. In common 
 parlance, a man is always a man to a man, and never a 
 gentleman ; to a woman, he is occasionally a man and oc- 
 casionally a gentleman ; but a man would far oftener term 
 a woman a -woman than he would term her a lady. When 
 a man makes use of an adjective in speaking of a lady, he 
 almost invariably calls her a woman. Thus, he would say, 
 ' I met a rather agreeable woman at dinner last night ' ; 
 but he would not say, ' I met an agreeable lady ' ; but he 
 might say, 'A lady, a friend of mine, told me,' etc., when 
 he would not say, ' A woman, a friend of mine, told me,' 
 etc. Again, a man would say, ' Which of the ladies did 
 you take in to dinner? ' He would certainly not say, ' Which 
 of the women,' etc. 
 
 " Speaking of people en masse, it would be to belong to 
 a very advanced school to refer to them in conversation as 
 'men and women,' while it would be all but vulgar to style 
 them 'ladies and gentlemen,' the compromise between the 
 two being to speak of them as ' ladies and men.' Thus a 
 lady would say, ' I have asked two or three ladies and sev- 
 eral men ' ; she would not say, ' I have asked several men 
 and women ' ; neither would she say, ' I have asked several 
 ladies and gentlemen.' And, speaking of numbers, it would 
 be very usual to say, ' There were a great many ladies, and 
 but very few men present,' or, ' The ladies were in the 
 majority, so few men being present.' Again, a lady would 
 not say, ' I expect two or three men,' but she would say, 
 ' I expect two or three gentlemen.' When people are on 
 ceremony with each other [one another], they might, per- 
 haps, in speaking of a man, call him a gentleman ; but, 
 otherwise, it would be more usual to speak of him as a man. 
 Ladies, when speaking of each other \one another], usually
 
 THE VERBALIST. 113 
 
 employ the term woman in prefersnce to that of lady. Thus 
 they would say, ' She is a very good-natured woman,' ' What 
 sort of a -woman is she ? ' the term lady being entirely out 
 of place under such circumstances. Again, the term young 
 lady gives place as far as possible to *he term girl, although 
 it greatly depends upon the amount of intimacy existing as 
 to which term is employed." 
 
 Language. A note in Worcester's Dictionary says : 
 " Language is a very general term, and is not strictly con- 
 fined to utterance by words, as it is also expressed by the 
 countenance, by the eyes, and by signs. Tongue refers 
 especially to an original language ; as, ' the Hebrew 
 tongue' The modern languages are derived from the 
 original tongues" If this be correct, then he who speaks 
 French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian, may prop- 
 erly say that he speaks five languages, but only one 
 tongue. 
 
 Lay Lie. Errors are frequent in the use of these two 
 irregular verbs. Lay is often used for lie, and lie is some- 
 times used for lay. This confusion in their use is due, in 
 some measure, doubtless, to the circumstance that lay ap- 
 pears in both verbs, it being the imperfect tense of to lie. 
 We say, "A mason lays bricks," "A ship lies at anchor," 
 etc. "I must lie down"; "I must lay myself down"; 
 " I must lay this book on the table " ; " He lies on the 
 grass " ; " He lays his plans well " ; " He lay on the grass " ; 
 " He laid it away " ; " He has lain in bed long enough ". ; 
 "He has laid tip some money," "in a stock," "down the 
 law " ; " He is laying out the grounds " ; " Ships lie at the 
 wharf" ; " Hens lay eggs" ; " The ship lay at anchor" ; 
 " The hen laid an egg." It will be seen that lay al- 
 ways expresses transitive action, and that lie expresses 
 rest.
 
 114 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " Here lies our sovereign lord, the king, 
 
 Whose word no man relies on ; 
 He never says a foolish thing, 
 Nor ever does a wise one." 
 
 . Written on the bedchamber door of Charles II, by the 
 Earl of Rochester. 
 
 Learn. This verb was long ago used as a synonym of 
 teach, but in this sense it is now obsolete. To teach is to 
 give instruction ; to learn is to take instruction. " I will 
 learn, if you will teach me." See TEACH. 
 
 Leave. There are grammarians who insist that this 
 verb should not be used without an object, as, for example, 
 it is used in such sentences as, " When do you leave? " " I 
 leave to-morrow." The object of the verb home, town, 
 or whatever it may be is, of course, understood ; but this, 
 say these gentlemen, is not permissible. On this point 
 opinions will, I think, differ ; they will, however, not differ 
 with regard to the vulgarity of using leave in the sense of 
 let ; thus, " Leave me be " ; " Leave it alone" ; " Leave her 
 be don't bother her " ; " Leave me see it." 
 
 Lend. See LOAN. 
 
 Lengthy. This word is of comparatively recent origin, 
 and, though it is said to be an Americanism, it is a good 
 deal used in England. The most careful writers, however, 
 both here and elsewhere, much prefer the word long : " a 
 long discussion," " a long discourse," etc. 
 
 Leniency. Mr. Gould calls this word and lenience 
 " two philological abortions." Lenity is undoubtedly the 
 proper word to use, though both Webster and Worcester 
 do recognize leniency and lenience. 
 
 Less. This word is much used instead of fewer. Less 
 relates to quantity ; fewer to number. Instead of, " There 
 were not less than twenty persons present," we should
 
 THE VERBALIST. 115 
 
 say, " There were not fewer than twenty persons pres- 
 ent." 
 
 Lesser. This form of the comparative of little is ac- 
 counted a corruption of less. It may, however, be used 
 instead of less with propriety in verse, and also, in some 
 cases, in prose. We may say, for example, " Of two evils 
 choose the less" or " the lesser." The latter form, in sen- 
 tences like this, is the more euphonious. 
 
 Liable. Richard Grant White, in inveighing against 
 the misuse of this word, cites the example of a member from 
 a rural district, who called out to a man whom he met in 
 the village, where he was in the habit of making little pur- 
 chases: " I say, mister, kin yer tell me whar I'd be li'ble 
 to find some beans ? " See, also, APT. 
 
 Lie. See LAY. 
 
 Like As. Both these words express similarity ; like 
 (adjective) comparing things, as (adverb) comparing action, 
 existence, or quality. Like is followed by an object only, 
 and does not admit of a verb in the same construction. 
 As must be followed by a verb expressed or understood. 
 We say, " He looks like his brother," or " He looks as 
 his brother looks." " Do as I do," not " like I do." " You 
 must speak as James does," not "like James does." " He 
 died as he had lived, like a dog." " It is as blue as indi- 
 go " ; i. e., " as indigo is." 
 
 Like, To. See LOVE. 
 
 Likely. See APT. 
 
 Lit. This form of the past participle of the verb to 
 light is now obsolete. " Have you lighted the fire ? " " The 
 gas is lighted." Het for heated is a similar, but much great- 
 er, vulgarism. 
 
 Loan Lend. There are those who contend that there 
 is no such verb as to loan, although it has been found in
 
 U6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 our literature for more than three hundred years. Whether 
 there is properly such a verb or not, it is quite certain that 
 it is only those having a vulgar penchant for big words who 
 will prefer it to its synonym lend. Better far to say "Lend 
 me your umbrella" than "Loan me your umbrella." 
 
 Locate Settle. The use of the verb to locate in the 
 sense of to settle is said to be an Americanism. Although 
 the dictionaries recognize to locate as a neuter verb, as such 
 it is marked " rarely used," and, in the sense of ta settle, it 
 is among the vulgarisms that careful speakers and writers 
 are studious to avoid. A man settles, not locates, in Nebraska. 
 "Where do you intend to settle?" not locate. See, also, 
 SETTLE. 
 
 Loggerheads. " In the mean time France is at logger- 
 heads internally." ''New York Herald," April 29, 1881. 
 Loggerheads internally ? ! 
 
 Looks beautifully. It is sometimes interesting to note 
 the difference between vulgar bad grammar and genteel bad 
 grammar, or, more properly, between non-painstaking and 
 painstaking bad grammar. The former uses, for example, 
 adjectives instead of adverbs ; the latter uses adverbs in- 
 stead of adjectives. The former says, " This bonnet is 
 trimmed shocking"; the latter says, "This bonnet looks 
 shockingly." In the first sentence the epithet qualifies the 
 verb is trimmed, and consequently should have its adverbial 
 form shockingly ; in the second sentence the epithet quali- 
 fies the appearance a noun of the bonnet, and conse- 
 quently should have its adjectival form shocking. The 
 second sentence means to say, " This bonnet presents a 
 shocking appearance." The bonnet certainly does not real- 
 ly look ; it is looked at, and to the looker its appearance is 
 shocking. So we say, in like manner, of a person, that he 
 or she looks sweet, or charming, or beautiful, or handsome,
 
 THE VERBALIST. 117 
 
 or horrid, or graceful, or timid, and so on, always using an 
 adjective. " Miss Coghlan, as Lady Teazle, looked charm- 
 ingly" The grammar of the " New York Herald " would 
 not have been any more incorrect if it had said that Miss 
 Coghlan looked gladly, or sadly, or madly, or delightedly, or 
 pleasedly. A person may look sick or sickly, but in both 
 cases the qualifying word is an adjective. The verbs to 
 smell, to feel, to sound, and to appear are also found in sen- 
 tences in which the qualifying word must be an adjective 
 and not an adverb. We say, for example, " The rose smells 
 sweet" ; "The butter smells good, or bad, or fresh" ; "I 
 feel glad, or sad, or bad, or despondent, or annoyed, or nerv- 
 ous" ; " This construction sounds harsh"; " How delight- 
 ful the country appears ! " 
 
 On the other hand, to look, to feel, to smell, to sound, 
 and to appear are found in sentences where the qualifying 
 word must be an adverb ; thus, " He feels his loss keenly" ; 
 " The king looked graciously on her" ; " I smell it faintly." 
 We might also say, " He feels sad [adjective], because he 
 feels his loss keenly" (adverb) ; "He appears well" (ad- 
 verb). 
 
 The expression, "She seemed confusedly, or timidly," is 
 not a whit more incorrect than " She looked beautifully, or 
 charmingly." See ADJECTIVES. 
 
 Love Like. Men who are at all careful in the selec- 
 tion "of language to express their thoughts, and have not an 
 undue leaning toward the superlative, love few things : their 
 wives, their sweethearts, their kinsmen, truth, justice, and 
 their country. Women, on the contrary, as a rule, love a 
 multitude of things, and, among their loves, the thing they 
 perhaps love most is taffy. 
 
 Luggage Baggage. The former of these words is 
 generally used in England, the latter in America.
 
 llg THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Lunch. This word, when used as a substantive, may 
 at the best be accounted an inelegant abbreviation of lunch- 
 eon. The dictionaries barely recognize it. The proper 
 phraseology to use is, " Have you lunched? " or, " Have 
 you had your luncheon?" or, better, " Have you had lunch- 
 eon ? " as we may in most cases presuppose that the per- 
 son addressed would hardly take anybody's else luncheon. 
 
 Luxurious Luxuriant. The line is drawn much more 
 sharply between these two words now than it was formerly. 
 Luxurious was once used, to some extent at least, in the 
 sense of rank growth, but now all careful writers and speak- 
 ers use it in the sense of indulging or delighting in luxiiry. 
 We talk of a luxurious table, a luxurious liver, luxurious 
 ease, luxiirious freedom. Luxuriant, on the other hand, is 
 restricted to the sense of rank, or excessive, growth or pro- 
 duction ; thus, luxuriant weeds, luxutiant foliage or 
 branches, luxuriant growth. 
 
 " Prune the luxuriant, the uncouth refine, 
 But show no mercy to an empty line." Pope. 
 
 Mad. Professor Richard A. Proctor, in a recent num- 
 ber of "The Gentleman's Magazine," says: "The word 
 mad in America seems nearly always to mean angry. For 
 mad, as we use the word, Americans say crazy. Herein 
 they have manifestly impaired the language." Have they ? 
 
 "Now, in faith, Gratiano, 
 
 You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief ; 
 An 'twere to me, I would be mad at it." 
 
 " Merchant of Venice." 
 
 " And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted 
 them even unto strange cities." Acts xxvi, II. 
 
 Make a visit. The phrase " make a visit," according 
 to Dr. Hall, whatever it once was, is no longer English. 
 
 Male. See FEMALE.
 
 THE VERBALIST, u g 
 
 Marry. There has been some discussion, at one time 
 and another, with regard to the use of this word. Is John 
 Jones married to Sally Brown or ivith Sally Brown, or are 
 they married to each other? Inasmuch as the woman loses 
 her name in that of the man to whom she is wedded, and 
 becomes a member of his family, not he of hers inasmuch 
 as, with few exceptions, it is her life that is merged in his 
 it would seem that, properly, Sally Brown is married to John 
 Jones, and that this would be the proper way to make the 
 announcement of their having been wedded, and not John 
 Jones to Sally Brown. 
 
 There is also a difference of opinion as to whether the 
 active or the passive form is preferable in referring to a per- 
 son's wedded state. In speaking definitely of the act of 
 marriage, the passive form is necessarily used with refer- 
 ence to either spouse. "John Jones was married to Sally 
 Brown on Dec. i, 1881 " ; not, " John Jones married Sally 
 Brown " on such a date, for (unless they were Quakers) 
 some third person married him to her and her to him. 
 But, in speaking indefinitely of the fact of marriage, the 
 active form is a matter of course. " \Vhom did John Jones 
 marry ?" " He married Sally Brown." " John Jones, when 
 he had sown his wild oats, married [married himself, as the 
 French say] and settled down." Got married is a vulgarism. 
 
 May. In the sense of can, may, in a negative clause, 
 has become obsolete. " Though we may say a horse, we 
 may not say a ox." The first may here is permissible ; not 
 so, however, the second, which should be can. 
 
 Meat. At table, we ask for and offer beef, mutton, 
 veal, steak, turkey, duck, etc., and do not ask for nor offer 
 meat, which, to say the least, is inelegant. " Will you have 
 [not, take] another piece of beef [not, of the beef] ? " not, 
 " Will you have another piece of meat ? "
 
 120 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Memorandum. The plural is memoranda, except when 
 the singular means a book ; then the plural is memorandums. 
 
 Mere. This word is not unfrequently misplaced, and 
 sometimes, as in the following sentence, in consequence of 
 being misplaced, it is changed to an adverb : " It is true of 
 men as of God, that words merely meet with no response." 
 What the writer evidently intended to say is, that mere 
 words meet with no response. 
 
 Metaphor. An implied comparison is called a meta- 
 phor ; it is a more terse form of expression than the simile. 
 Take, for example, this sentence from Spenser's " Philoso- 
 phy of Style " : " As, in passing through the crystal, beams 
 of white light are decomposed into the colors of the rain- 
 bow ; so, in traversing the soul of the poet, the colorless 
 rays of truth are transformed into brightly-tinted poetry." 
 Expressed in metaphors, this becomes : " The white light 
 of truth, in traversing the many-sided, transparent soul of 
 the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry." 
 
 Worcester's definition of a metaphor is : "A figure of 
 speech founded on the resemblance which one object is 
 supposed to bear, in some respect, to another, or a figure 
 by which a word is transferred from a subject to which it 
 properly belongs to another, in such a manner that a com- 
 parison is implied, though not formally expressed ; a com- 
 parison or simile comprised in a word ; as, ' Thy word is a 
 lamp to my feet.' " A metaphor differs from a simile in be- 
 ing expressed without any sign of comparison ; thus, " the 
 silver moon " is a metaphor; " the moon is bright as silver" 
 is a simile. Examples : 
 
 " But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, 
 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill." 
 " Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased 
 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow?"
 
 THE VERBALIST. 121 
 
 " At length Erasmus 
 
 Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age, 
 And drove those holy Vandals off the stage." 
 
 " Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being 
 eminent." 
 
 Metonymy. The rhetorical figure that puts the effect 
 for the cause, the cause for the effect, the container for the 
 thing contained, the sign, or symbol, for the thing signified, 
 or the instrument for the agent, is called metonymy. 
 
 " One very common species of metonymy is, when the 
 badge is put for the office. Thus we say the miter for the 
 priesthood ; the crown for royalty ; for military occupation 
 we say the sword ; and for the literary professions, those 
 especially of theology, law, and physic, the common expres- 
 sion is the gown." Campbell. 
 
 Dr. Quackenbos, in his " Course of Composition and 
 Rhetoric," says : " Metonymy is the exchange of names be- 
 tween things related. It is founded, not on resemblance, 
 but on the relation of, I. Cause and effect ; as, ' They have 
 Moses and the prophets' i. e., their writings ; ' Gray hairs 
 should be respected,' i. e., old age. 2. Progenitor and pos- 
 terity ; as, ' Hear, O Israel ! ' i. e., descendants of Israel. 
 3. Subject and attribute ; as, ' Youth and beauty shall be 
 laid in dust,' i. e., the young and beautiful. 4. Place and 
 inhabitant ; as, ' What land is so barbarous as to allow this 
 injustice ? ' i. e., what people. 5. Container and thing con- 
 tained ; as, ' Our ships next opened fire,' i. e., our sailors. 
 6/ Sign and thing signified ; as, ' The scepter shall not de- 
 part from Judah,' i. e., kingly power. 7. Material and 
 thing made of it ; as, ' His steel gleamed on high,' i. e., his 
 sword" 
 
 " Petitions having proved unsuccessful, it was deter- 
 mined to approach the throne more boldly."
 
 122 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Midst, The. See IN OUR MIDST. 
 
 Mind Capricious. " Lord Salisbury's mind is capri* 
 cious." " Tribune," April 3, 1881. See EQUANIMITY OF 
 MIND. 
 
 Misplaced Clauses. In writing and speaking, it is as 
 important to give each clause its proper place as it is to 
 place the words properly. The following are a few in- 
 stances of misplaced clauses and adjuncts : " All these cir- 
 cumstances brought close to us a state of things which we 
 never thought to have witnessed [to witness] in peaceful 
 England. In the sister island, indeed, -we had read of such 
 horrors, but now they were brought home to our very 
 household hearth." Swift. Better : " We had read, in- 
 deed, of such horrors occurring in the sister island," etc. 
 
 " The savage people in many places in America, except 
 the government of families, have no government at all, and 
 live at this day in that savage manner as I have said 
 before." Hobbes. Better: "The savage people ... in 
 America have no government at all, except the government 
 of families," etc, 
 
 " I shall have a comedy for you, in a season or two at 
 farthest, that I believe will be worth your acceptance." 
 Goldsmith. Bettered : " In a season or two at farthest, I 
 shall have a comedy for you that I believe will be worth 
 your acceptance." 
 
 Among the following examples of the wrong placing of 
 words and clauses, there are some that are as amusing as 
 they are instructive : " This orthography is regarded as nor- 
 mal in England." What the writer intended was, " in Eng- 
 land as normal" a very different thought. " The Normal 
 School is a commodious building capable of accommodating 
 three hundred students four stories high." " HOUSEKEEP- 
 ER. A highly respectable middle-aged Person who has been
 
 THE VERBALIST. 123 
 
 filling the above Situation with a gentleman for upwards of 
 eleven years and who is now deceased is anxious to meet a 
 similar one." " To PIANO-FORTE MAKERS. A lady keep- 
 ing a first-class school requiring a good piano, is desirous of 
 receiving a daughter of the above in exchange for the same." 
 " The Moor, seizing a bolster boiling over with rage and 
 jealousy, smothers her." " The Dying Zouave the most 
 wonderful mechanical representation ever seen of the last 
 breath of life being shot in the breast and life's blood leav- 
 ing the wound." "Mr. T presents his compliments to 
 
 Mr. H , and I have got a hat that is not his, and, if he 
 
 have a hat that is not yours, no doubt they are the expect- 
 ant ones." See ONLY. 
 
 Misplaced Words. " Of all the faults to be found 
 in writing," says Cobbett, " this is one of the most com- 
 mon, and perhaps it leads to the greatest number of mis- 
 conceptions. All the words may be the proper words to 
 be used upon the occasion, and yet, by a misplacing of a 
 part of them, the meaning may be wholly destroyed ; and 
 even made to be the contrary of what it ought to be." 
 
 " I asked the question with no other intention than to 
 set the gentleman free from the necessity of silence, and to 
 give him an opportunity of mingling on equal terms with a 
 polite assembly from which, however uneasy, he could not 
 then escape, by a kind introduction of the only subject on 
 which I believed him to be able to speak with propriety." 
 Dr. Johnson. 
 
 " This," says Cobbett, " is a very bad sentence alto- 
 gether. ' However uneasy* applies to assembly and not to 
 gentleman. Only observe how easily this might have been 
 avoided. ' From which he, however uneasy, could not then 
 escape.' After this we have, ' he could not then escape, by 
 a kind introduction! We know what is meant ; but the
 
 124 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Doctor, with all his commas, leaves the sentence confused. 
 Let us see whether we can not make it clear. ' I asked the 
 question with no other intention than, by a kind introduc- 
 tion of the only subject on which I believed him to be able 
 ' to speak with propriety, to set the gentleman free from the 
 necessity of silence, and to give him an opportunity of 
 mingling on equal terms with a polite assembly from which 
 he, however uneasy, could not then escape.' " 
 
 " Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the 
 chief eminences whereby we are raised above our fellow- 
 creatures, the brutes, in this lower world." Doctor Watts' 
 " Logic." 
 
 " I have before showed an error," Cobbett remarks, " in 
 the first sentence of Doctor Watts' work. This is the 
 second sentence. The words in this lower -world are not 
 words misplaced only ; they are wholly unnecessary, and 
 they do great harm ; for they do these two things : first, 
 they imply that there are brutes in the higher world ; and, 
 second, they excite a doubt whether we are raised above 
 those brutes. 
 
 " I might greatly extend the number of my extracts from 
 these authors ; but here, I trust, are enough. I had noted 
 down about two hundred errors in Dr. Johnson's ' Lives of 
 the Poets ' ; but, afterward perceiving that he had revised 
 and corrected ' The Rambler ' with extraordinary care, I 
 chose to make my extracts from that work rather than from 
 the ' Lives of the Poets.' " 
 
 The position of the adverb should be as near as possible 
 to the word it qualifies. Sometimes we place it before the 
 auxiliary and sometimes after it, according to the thought 
 we wish to express. The difference between " The fish 
 should properly be broiled" and "The fish should be prop- 
 erly broiled " is apparent at a glance. " The colon may be
 
 THE VERBALIST. 125 
 
 properly used in the following cases " : should be, " may 
 properly be used." " This mode of expression rather suits 
 a familiar than a grave style " : should be, " suits a familiar 
 rather than a grave style." " It is a frequent error in the 
 writings even of some good authors " : should be, " in the 
 writings of even some good authors." " Both the circum- 
 stances of contingency and futurity are necessary " : should 
 be, " The circumstances of contingency and futurity are both 
 necessary." "He has made charges . . . which he has 
 failed utterly to sustain." " New York Tribune." Here 
 it is uncertain at first sight which verb the adverb is in- 
 tended to qualify ; but the nature of the case makes it 
 probable that the writer meant " has utterly failed to sus- 
 tain." 
 
 Mistaken. " If I am not mistaken, you are in the 
 wrong": say, "If I mistake not." "I tell you, you are 
 mistaken" Here mistaken means, "You are wrong; you 
 do not understand"; but it might be taken to mean, "I 
 mistake you." For "you are mistaken" say, "you mis- 
 take" If, as Horace and Professor Davidson aver, usage 
 in language makes right, then the grammarians ought long 
 ago to have invented some theory upon which the locution 
 you are mistaken could be defended. Until they do invent 
 such a theory, it will be better to say you mistake, he mis- 
 takes, and so on ; or you are, or he is as the case may be 
 in error. 
 
 More perfect. Such expressions as, " the more perfect 
 of the two," " the most perfect thing of the kind I have 
 ever seen," " the most complete cooking-stove ever invent- 
 ed," and the like, can not be defended logically, as noth- 
 ing can be more perfect than perfection, or more complete 
 than completeness. Still such phrases are, and probably 
 will continue to be, used by good writers.
 
 126 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Most. " Everybody abuses this word," says Mr. Gould 
 in his "Good English"; and then, in another paragraph, he 
 adds: "If a man would cross out most wherever he can 
 find it in any book in the English language, he would in 
 a/most every instance improve the style of the book." 
 That this statement may appear within bounds, he gives 
 many examples from good authors, some of which are the 
 following : " a most profound silence " ; " a most just idea " ; 
 " a most complete orator " ; " this was most extraordinary" ; 
 "an object of most perfect esteem" ; "a most extensive 
 erudition " ; " he gave it most liberally away " ; " it is, most 
 assuredly, not because I value his services least " ; "would 
 most seriously affect us " ; " that such a system must most 
 widely and most powerfully," etc. ; "it is most effectually 
 nailed to the counter" ; "it is most undeniable that," etc. 
 
 This word is much, and very erroneously, used for al- 
 most. " He comes here most every day." The user of 
 such a sentence as this means to say that he comes nearly 
 every day, but he really says, if he says anything, that he 
 comes more every day than he does every night. In such 
 sentences almost, and not most, is the word to use. 
 
 Mutual. This word is much misused in the phrase 
 "our mutual friend." Macaulay says: "Mutual friend is 
 a low vulgarism for common friend." Mtitttal properly re- 
 lates to two persons, and implies reciprocity of sentiment 
 sentiment, be it what it may, received and returned. Thus, 
 we say properly, "John and James have a mutual affec- 
 tion, or a mutual aversion," i. e., they like or dislike each 
 other ; or, " John and James are mutually dependent," i. e., 
 they are dependent on each other. In using the word mu- 
 iual, care should be taken not to add the words for each 
 other or on each other, the thought conveyed by these words 
 being already expressed in the word mutual. " Dependent
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 127 
 
 on each other "' is the exact equivalent of " mutually de- 
 pendent"'; hence, saying that John and James are mutually 
 dependent on each otlier is as redundant in form as it would 
 be to say that the editors of " The Great Vilifier " are the 
 biggest, greatest mud-slingers in America. 
 
 Myself. This form of the personal pronoun is properly 
 used in the nominative case only where increased emphasis 
 is aimed at. 
 
 " I had as lief not be as live to be 
 
 In awe of such a thing as I myself." 
 
 " I will do it myself ^ " I saw it myself." It is, therefore, 
 incorrect to say, " Mrs. Brown and myself were both very 
 much pleased." 
 
 Name. This word is sometimes improperly used for 
 mention ; thus, "I never named the matter to any one " : 
 should be, " I never mentioned the matter to any one." 
 
 Neighborhood. See VICINITY. 
 
 Neither. See EITHER. 
 
 Neither Nor. " He would neither give wine, nor oil, 
 nor money." Thackeray. The conjunction should be 
 placed before the excluded object ; " neither give " implies 
 neither some other verb, a meaning not intended. Re- 
 arrange thus, taking all the common parts of the contracted 
 sentences together : " He would give neither wine, nor oil, 
 nor money." So, " She can neither help her beauty, nor 
 her courage, nor her cruelty" (Thackeray), should be, "She 
 can help neither" etc. " He had neither time to intercept 
 nor to stop her" (Scott), should be, "He had time neither 
 to intercept," etc. " Some neitfier can for wits nor critics 
 pass " (Pope), should be, " Some can neither for wits nor 
 critics pass." 
 
 Never. Grammarians differ with regard to the correct- 
 ness of using never in such sentences as, " He is in error, 
 
 t7
 
 128 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 though never so wise," " Charm he never so wisely." In 
 sentences like these, to say the least, it is better, in com- 
 mon with the great majority of writers, to use ever. 
 
 New. This adjective is often misplaced. " He has a 
 new suit of clothes and a new pair of gloves." It is not 
 the suit and the fair that are new, but the clothes and the 
 gloves. 
 
 Nice. Archdeacon Hare remarks of the use, or rather 
 misuse, of this word : " That stupid vulgarism by which we 
 use the word nice to denote almost every mode of approba- 
 tion, for almost every variety of quality, and, from sheer 
 poverty of thought, or fear of saying anything definite, 
 wrap up everything indiscriminately in this characterless 
 domino, speaking at the same breath of a nice cheese-cake, 
 a nice tragedy, a nice sermon, a nice day, a nice country, 
 as if a universal deluge of niaiserie for nice seems origin- 
 ally to have been only niais had whelmed the whole isl- 
 and." Nice is as good a word as any other in its place, 
 but its place is not everywhere. We talk very properly 
 about a nice distinction, a nice discrimination, a nice calcu- 
 lation, a nice point, and about a person's being nice, and 
 over-nice, and the like ; but we certainly ought not to talk 
 about " Othello's " being a nice tragedy, about Salvini's be- 
 ing a nice actor, or New York bay's being a nice harbor.* 
 
 Nicely. The very quintessence of popinjay vulgarity is 
 reached when nicely is made to do service for well, in this 
 wise : " How do you do? " " Nicely." " How are you ? " 
 ' ' Nicely." 
 
 No. This word of negation is responded to by nor in 
 
 * The possessive construction here is, in my judgment, not impera- 
 tively demanded. There is certainly no lack of authority for putting 
 the three substantives in the accusative. The possessive construction 
 seems to me, however, to be preferable.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 129 
 
 sentences like this : " Let your meaning be obscure, and 
 no grace of diction nor any music of well-turned sentences 
 will make amends." 
 
 " Whether he is there or no." Supply the ellipsis, and 
 we have, "Whether he is there or no there." Clearly, 
 the word to use in sentences like this is not no, but not. 
 And yet our best writers sometimes inadvertently use no 
 with whether. Example : " But perhaps some people are 
 quite indifferent -wJiether or no it is said," etc. Richard 
 Grant White, in "Words and Their Uses," p. 84. Sup- 
 ply the ellipsis, and we have, " said or no said." In a little 
 book entitled " Live and Learn," I find, " No less than 
 fifty persons were there ; No fewer" etc. In correcting 
 one mistake, the writer himself makes one. It should be, 
 " Not fewer," etc. If we ask, "There were fifty persons 
 there, were there or were there not?" the reply clearly 
 would be, " There were not fewer than fifty." " There 
 was no one of them who would not have been proud," etc., 
 should be, " There was not one of them." 
 
 Not. The correlative of not, when it stands in the first 
 member of a sentence, is nor or neither. " Not for thy 
 ivory nor thy gold will I unbind thy chain." " I will not 
 do it, neither shall you." 
 
 The wrong placing of not often gives rise to an imper- 
 fect negation ; thus, " John and James were not there," 
 means that John and James were not there in company. It 
 does not exclude the presence of one of them. The nega- 
 tive should precede in this case : " Neither John nor James 
 was there." "Our company was not present" (as a com- 
 pany, but some of us might have been), should be, " No 
 member of our company was present." 
 
 Not but only. " Errors frequently arise in the use 
 of not but only, to understand which we must attend to
 
 130 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 the force of the whole expression. ' He did not pretend to 
 extirpate French music, but only to cultivate and civilize it.' 
 Here the not is obviously misplaced. ' He pretended, or 
 professed, not to extirpate.' " Bain. 
 
 Notorious. Though this word can not be properly 
 used in any but a bad sense, we sometimes see it used 
 instead of noted, which may be used in either a good or a 
 bad sense. Notoi ious characters are always persons to be 
 shunned, whereas noted characters may or may not be per- 
 sons to be shunned. 
 
 " This is the tax a man must pay for his virtues they 
 hold up a torch to his vices and render those frailties notori- 
 ous in him which would pass without observation in an- 
 other." Lacon. 
 
 Novice. See AMATEUR. 
 
 Number. It is not an uncommon thing for a pronoun 
 in the plural number to be used in connection with an 
 antecedent in the singular. At present, the following notice 
 may be seen in some of our Broadway omnibuses : " Fifty 
 dollars reward for the conviction of any person caught col- 
 lecting or keeping fares given to them to deposit in the 
 box." Should be, to him. "A person may be very near- 
 sighted if they can not recognize an acquaintance ten feet 
 off." Should be, if he. 
 
 The verb to be is often used in the singular instead of 
 in the plural ; thus, " There is several reasons why it would 
 be better " : say, are. " How many is there ? " say, are. 
 " There is four " : say, are. " Was there many ? " say, were. 
 06 No matter how many there was " : say, were. 
 
 A verb should agree in number with its subject, and not 
 with its predicate. We say, for example, " Death is the 
 wages of sin," and " The wages of sin are death." 
 
 " When singular nouns connected by and are preceded
 
 THE VERBALIST. 131 
 
 by each, every, or no, the verb must be singular." We say, 
 for example, "Each boy and each girl studies." "Every leaf, 
 and every twig, and every drop of water teems with life." 
 "No book and no paper was arranged." 
 
 Each being singular, a pronoun or verb to agree with 
 it must also be singular ; thus, " Let them depend each on 
 his own exertions " ; " Each city has its peculiar privileges " ; 
 " Everybody has a right to look after his own interest." 
 
 Errors are often the result of not repeating the verb ; 
 thus, " Its significance is as varied as the passions " : cor- 
 rectly, " as are the passions." " The words are as incapa- 
 ble of analysis as the thing signified": correctly, "as is 
 the thing signified." 
 
 Observe. The dictionaries authorize the use of this 
 word as a synonym of say and remark ; as, for example, 
 "What did you observe?" for "What did you say, or re- 
 mark ? " In this sense, however, it is better to leave ob- 
 serve to the exclusive use of those who delight in being 
 fine. 
 
 O'clock. "It is a quarter to ten o'clock." What does 
 this statement mean, literally ? We understand by it that 
 it lacks a quarter of ten, i. e., of being ten ; but it does not 
 really mean that. Inasmuch as to means toward, it really 
 means a quarter after nine. We should say, then, a quarter 
 of, which means, literally, a quarter out of ten. 
 
 Of all others. " The vice of covetousness, of all oth- 
 ers, enters deepest into the soul." This sentence says that 
 covetousness is one of the other vices. A thing can not be 
 another thing, nor can it be one of a number of other things. 
 The sentence should be, " Of all the vices, covetousness en- 
 ters deepest into the soul " ; or, " The vice of covetousness, 
 of all the vices, enters," etc. ; or, " The vice of covetousness, 
 above all others, enters," etc.
 
 132 THE VERBALIST, 
 
 Of any. This phrase is often used when of all is 
 meant ; thus, " This is the largest of any I have seen." 
 Should be, "the largest of all" etc. 
 
 Off of. In such sentences as, " Give me a yard off of 
 this piece of calico," either the off or the of is vulgarly su- 
 perfluous. The sentence would be correct with either one, 
 but not with both of them. " The apples fell off of the 
 tree" : read, "fell offi\ie tree." 
 
 Often. This adverb is properly compared by changing 
 its termination : often, oftener, oftenest. Why some writers 
 use more and most to compare it, it is not easy to see ; this 
 mode of comparing it is certainly not euphonious. 
 
 Oh O. It is only the most careful writers who use 
 these two interjections with proper discrimination. The 
 distinction between them is said to be modern. Oh is 
 simply an exclamation, and should always be followed by 
 some mark of punctuation, usually by an exclamation point. 
 " Oh ! you are come at last." " Oh, help him, you sweet 
 heavens!" "Oh, woe is me!" "Oh! I die, Horatio." 
 O, in addition to being an exclamation, denotes a calling to 
 or adjuration ; thus, " Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O 
 earth ! " " O grave, where is thy victory ! " " O heavenly 
 powers, restore him ! " " O shame ! where is thy blush ? " 
 
 Older Elder. " He is the older man of the two, and 
 the oldest in the neighborhood." " He is the elder of the 
 two sons, and the eldest of the family." " The elder son is 
 heir to the estate ; he is older than his brother by ten years." 
 
 On to. We get on a chair, on an omnibus, on a stump, 
 and on a spree, and not on to. 
 
 One. Certain pronouns of demonstrative signification 
 are called indefinite because they refer to no particular 
 subject. This is one of them. If we were putting a sup- 
 position by way of argument or illustration, we might say,
 
 THE VERBALIST. 133 
 
 * Suppose / were to lose my way in a wood " ; or, " Suppose 
 you were to lose your way in a wood " ; or, " Suppose one 
 were to lose ones way in a wood." All these forms are 
 used, but, as a rule, the last is to be preferred. The first 
 verges on egotism, and the second makes free with another's 
 person, whereas the third is indifferent. "If ones honesty 
 were impeached, what should one do? " is more courtly than 
 to take either one's self or the person addressed for the 
 example. 
 
 One should be followed by one, and not by he. " The 
 better acquainted one is with any kind of rhetorical trick, 
 the less liable he is to be misled by it." Should be, " the 
 less liable one is to be misled by it." 
 
 In the phrase, " any of the little ones" one is the numeral 
 employed in the manner of a pronoun, by indicating some- 
 thing that has gone before, or, perhaps, has to come after. 
 " I like peaches, but I must have a ripe one, or ripe ones." 
 
 Professor Bain says, in his "Composition Grammar" : 
 
 " This pronoun continually lands writers in difficulties. 
 English idiom requires that, when the pronoun has to be 
 again referred to, it should be used itself a second time. 
 The correct usage is shown by Pope : ' One may be ashamed 
 to consume half one's days in bringing sense and rhyme to- 
 gether.' It would be against idiom to srfy ' half his days.' 
 
 " Still, the repetition of the pronoun is often felt to be 
 heavy, and writers have recourse to various substitutions. 
 Even an ear accustomed to the idiom can scarcely accept 
 with unmixed pleasure this instance from Browning : 
 " ' Alack ! one lies oneself 
 Even in the stating that one's end was truth, 
 Truth only, if one states so much in words.' 
 
 " The representative ' I ' or ' we ' occasionally acts the 
 part of ' one.' The following sentence presents a curious
 
 134 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 alternation of 'we' with 'one* possibly not accidental 
 (George Eliot) : ' It's a desperately vexatious thing that, 
 after all one's reflections and quiet determinations, we should 
 be ruled by moods that one can't calculate on beforehand. 1 
 By the use of ' we ' here, a more pointed reference is sug< 
 gested, while the vagueness actually remains. 
 
 " Fenimore Cooper, like Scott, is not very particular ; an 
 example may be quoted : ' Modesty is a poor man's wealth ; 
 but, as we grow substantial in the world, patroon, one can 
 afford to begin to speak truth of himself as well as of his 
 neighbor.' Were Cooper a careful writer, we might per- 
 suade ourselves that he chose ' we ' and ' one ' with a pur- 
 pose : ' we ' might indicate that the speaker had himself 
 and the patroon directly in his eye, although at the same 
 time he wanted to put it generally ; and ' one ' might hint 
 that modesty succeeded in getting the better of him. But 
 ' himself ' and ' his ' would alone show that such specula- 
 tions are too refined for the occasion. 
 
 " The form ' a man,' which was at one time common, 
 seems to be reviving. In ' Adam Bede ' we have, ' A man 
 can never do anything aft variance with his own nature." 
 We might substitute ' one,' 
 
 " ' Men ' was more frequent in good writing formerly 
 than now. ' Neither do men light a candle, and put it 
 under a bushel.' ' Do men gather grapes of thorns ? ' 
 Hume is fond of expressing a general subject by ' men.' 
 
 " ' Small birds are much more exposed to the cold than 
 large ones' This usage is hardly ' indefinite ' ; and it 
 needs no further exemplification." 
 
 Only. This word, when used as an adjective, is more 
 frequently misplaced than any other word in the language. 
 Indeed, I am confident that it is not correctly placed half 
 the time, either in conversation or in writing. Thus, '' In
 
 THE VERBALIST. 135 
 
 its pages, papers of sterling merit [only] will only appear " 
 (Miss Braddon) ; " Things are getting dull down in Texas ; 
 they only shot [only] three men down there last week " ; 
 " I have only got [only] three." Only i? sometimes im- 
 properly used for except or unless ; thus, " The trains will 
 not stop only when the bell rings." The meaning here is 
 clearly " except when the bell rings." 
 
 Dr. Bain, in his " Higher English Grammar," speaking 
 of the order of words, says : 
 
 " The word requiring most attention is only. 
 " According to the position of only, the same words may 
 be made to express very different meanings. 
 
 " ' He only lived for their sakes.' Here only must be 
 held as qualifying ' lived for their sakes,' the emphasis being 
 on lived, the word immediately adjoining. The meaning 
 then is ' he lived,' but did not -work, did not die, did not do 
 any other thing for their sakes. 
 
 " ' He lived only for their sakes.' Only now qualifies 
 ' for their sakes,' and the sentence means he lived for this 
 one reason, namely, for their sakes, and not for any other 
 reason. 
 
 " ' He lived for their sakes only' The force of the word 
 when placed at the end is peculiar. Then it often has a 
 diminutive or disparaging signification. ' He lived for their 
 sakes,' and not for any more worthy reason. ' He gave 
 sixpence only,' is an insinuation that more was expected. 
 
 " By the use of alone, instead of only, other meanings 
 are expressed. ' He alone lived for their sakes ' ; that is, 
 he, and nobody else, did so. ' He lived for their sakes alone' 
 or, ' for the sake of them alone ' ; that is, not for the sake 
 of any other persons. ' It was alone by the help of the Con- 
 federates that any such design could be carried out.' Better 
 only.
 
 136 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " ' When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only 
 make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.' Pope. 
 Here only is rightly placed. ' Think only of the past as its 
 remembrance gives you pleasure,' should be, ' think of the 
 past, only as its remembrance,' etc. ' As he did not leave 
 his name, it was only known that a gentleman had called 
 on business ' : it was known only. ' I can only refute the 
 accusation by laying before you the whole ' : this would 
 mean, ' the only thing I am able to do is to refute ; I may 
 not retaliate, or let it drop, I must refute it.' ' The negroes 
 are to appear at church only in boots ' ; that is, when the 
 negroes go to church they are to have no clothing but boots. 
 1 The negroes are to appear only at church in boots ' might 
 mean that they are not to appear anywhere but at church, 
 whether in boots or out of them. The proper arrangement 
 would be to connect the adverbial adjunct, in boots, with 
 its verb, appear, and to make only qualify at church and 
 no more : ' the negroes are to appear in boots only at 
 church.' " 
 
 It thus appears very plain that we should look well to 
 our onlys. 
 
 Ought Should. These two words, though they both 
 imply obligation, should not be used indiscriminately. Ought 
 is the stronger term ; what we ought to do, we are morally 
 bound to do. We ought to be truthful and honest, and 
 should be respectful to our elders and kind to our in- 
 feriors. 
 
 Overflown. Flown is the past participle of to fly, and 
 flowed of to flow. As, therefore, a river does not fly over 
 its banks, but flows over them, we should say of it that it 
 has overflowed, and not that it has o\zrjloivn. 
 
 Overly. This word is now used only by the un- 
 schooled.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 137 
 
 Owing. See DUE. 
 
 Pants. This abbreviation is not used by those who are 
 careful in the choice of words. The purist does not use 
 the word pantaloons even, but trousers. Pants are worn 
 by gents who eat lunches and open wine, and trousers are 
 worn by gentlemen who eat luncheons and order wine. 
 
 Paraphernalia. This is a law term. In Roman law, 
 it meant the goods which a woman brought to her husband 
 besides her dowry. In English law, it means the goods 
 which a woman is allowed to have after the death of her 
 husband, besides her dower, consisting of her apparel and 
 ornaments suitable to her rank. When used in speaking 
 of the affairs of every-day life, it is generally misused. 
 
 Parlor. This word, in the sense of drawing-room, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Hall, except in the United States and some 
 of the English colonies, is obsolete. 
 
 Partake. This is a very fine word to use for eat; 
 just the word for young women who hobble on French 
 heels. 
 
 Partially Partly. " It is only partially done." This 
 use of the adverb partially is sanctioned by high authority, 
 but that does not make it correct. A thing done in part 
 is partly, not partially, done. 
 
 Participles. When the present participle is used sub- 
 stantively, in sentences like the following, it is preceded 
 by the definite article and followed by the preposition of. 
 The omitting of the preposition is a common error. Thus,. 
 " Or, it is the draiving a conclusion which was before either 
 unknown or dark," should be, " the drawing of a conclu- 
 sion." "Prompted by the most extreme vanity, he per- 
 sisted in the writing bad verses," should be, " in writing 
 bad verses," or "in the writing of bad verses." "There 
 is a misuse of the article a which is very common. It is
 
 138 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 the using it before the word most." Moon. Most writers 
 would have said " the using of it." Mr. Moon argues for 
 his construction. 
 
 Particles. " Nothing but study of the best writers and 
 practice in composition will enable us to decide what are 
 the prepositions and conjunctions that ought to go with 
 certain verbs. The following examples illustrate some 
 common blunders : 
 
 " ' It was characterized with eloquence ' : read, 'by.' 
 
 " * A testimonial of the merits of his grammar * : read, 
 'to.' 
 
 " ' It was an example of the love to form comparisons ' : 
 read, ' of forming.' 
 
 " ' Repetition is always to be preferred before obscurity ' : 
 read, ' to.' 
 
 "'He made an effort for meeting them': read, 'to 
 meet.' 
 
 " ' They have no other object but to come ' : read, ' other 
 object than,' or omit ' other.' 
 
 " Two verbs are not unfrequently followed by a single 
 preposition, which accords with one only ; e. g., ' This 
 duty is repeated and inculcated upon the reader.' ' Repeat 
 upon ' is nonsense ; we must read ' is repeated to and in- 
 culcaled upon.' " Nichol's " English Composition," p. 39. 
 We often see for used with the substantive sympathy ; the 
 best practice, however, uses -with ; thus, " Words can not 
 express the deep sympathy I feel -with you." Queen Vic- 
 toria. 
 
 Party. This is a very good word in its place, but it 
 is very much out of its place when used as it often is 
 by the vulgar where good taste would use the word 
 person. 
 
 Patronize. This word and its derivatives would be
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 139 
 
 much less used by the American tradesman than they are, 
 if he were better acquainted with their true meaning. Then 
 he would solicit his neighbors' custom, not their patronage. 
 A man can have no patrons without incurring obligations 
 without becoming a protege ; while a man may have cus- 
 tomers innumerable, and, instead of placing himself under 
 obligations to them, he may place them under obligations 
 to him. Princes are the patrons of those tradesmen whom 
 they allow to call themselves their purveyors ; as, " John 
 Smith, Haberdasher to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales." 
 Here the Prince patronizes John Smith. 
 
 Pell-mell. This adverb means mixed or mingled to- 
 gether ; as, " Men, horses, chariots, crowded pell-mell'' It 
 can not properly be applied to an individual. To say, for 
 example, " He rushed pell-mell down the stairs," is as in- 
 correct as it would be to say, " He rushed down the stairs 
 mixed together" 
 
 Per. This Latin preposition is a good deal used in 
 English, as, for example, in such phrases as per day, per 
 man, per pound, per ton, and so on. In all such cases it 
 is better to use plain English, and say, a day, a man, a 
 pound, a ton, etc. Per is correct before Latin nouns only ; 
 as, per annum, per diem, per cent., etc. 
 
 Perform. " She performs on the piano beautifully." 
 In how much better taste it is to say simply, " She plays 
 the piano well," or, more superlatively, " exceedingly well," 
 or " admirably " ! If we talk about performing on musical 
 instruments, to be consistent, we should call those who 
 perform, piano-performers, cornet-performers, violin-per- 
 formers, and so on. 
 
 Perpetually. This word is sometimes misused for 
 tontinually. Dr. William Mathews, in his " Words, their 
 Use and Abuse," says: "The Irish are perpetually using
 
 140 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 shall for -will," Perpetiial means never ceasing, continu- 
 ing without intermission, uninterrupted ; while continual 
 means that which is constantly renewed and recurring with 
 perhaps frequent stops and interruptions. As the Irish 
 do something besides misuse shall, the Doctor should have 
 said that they continually use shall for will. I might per- 
 haps venture to intimate that perpetually is likewise misused 
 in the following sentence, which I copy from the " London 
 Queen," if I were not conscious that the monster who can 
 write and print such a sentence would not hesitate to cable 
 a thunderbolt at an offender on the slightest provocation. 
 Judge, if my fears are groundless : " But some few people 
 contract the ugly habit of making use of these expressions 
 unconsciously and continuously, perpetually interlarding 
 their conversation with them." 
 
 Person. See PARTY ; also, INDIVIDUAL. 
 Personalty. This word does not, as some persons 
 think, mean the articles worn on one's person. It is prop- 
 erly a law term, and means personal property. "There is 
 but one case on record of a peer of England leaving over 
 $7>5OO,ooo personalty." 
 
 Personification. That rhetorical figure which attrib- 
 utes sex, life, or action to inanimate objects, or ascribes to 
 objects and brutes the acts and qualities of rational beings, 
 is called personification or prosopopoeia. 
 
 " The mountains sing together, the hills rejoice and clap 
 their hands" " The worm, a-ware of his intent, harangued 
 him thus." 
 
 " See, Winter comes to rule the varied year, 
 
 Sullen and sad with all his rising train." Thomson. 
 " So saying, her rash hand, in evil hour, 
 
 Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate ! 
 
 Earth felt the wound j and Nature from her seat,
 
 THE VERBALIST. 141 
 
 Sighing through all her works, gave signs of zuoe, 
 That all was lost." Milton. 
 " War and Love are strange compeers. 
 
 War sheds blood, and Love sheds tears ; 
 
 War has swords, and Love has darts ; 
 
 War breaks heads, and Love breaks hearts." 
 
 " Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than 
 each of them appears." 
 
 " The English language, by reserving the distinction 
 of gender for living beings that have sex, gives especial 
 scope for personification. The highest form of personifica^ 
 tion should be used seldom, and only when justified by the 
 presence of strong feeling." Bain. 
 
 " Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, 
 
 Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells 
 
 In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; 
 
 Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. 
 
 Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much ; 
 
 Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." Cowper. 
 Phenomenon. Plural, phenomena. 
 
 Plead. The imperfect tense and the perfect participle 
 of the verb to plead are both pleaded and not plead. "He 
 pleaded not guilty." " You should have pleaded your cause 
 with more fervor." 
 
 Plenty. In Worcester's Dictionary we find the follow- 
 ing note : "Plenty is much used colloquially as an adjec- 
 tive, in the sense of plentiful, both in this country and in 
 England ; and this use is supported by respectable author- 
 ities, though it is condemned by various critics. Johnson 
 says : ' It is used barbarously, I think, for plentiful' ; and 
 Dr. Campbell, in his ' Philosophy of Rhetoric,' says : ' Plenty 
 for plentiful appears to me so gross a vulgarism that I 
 should not have thought it worthy of a place here if I had
 
 142 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 not sometimes found it in works of considerable merit."' 
 We should say, then, that money is plentiful, and not that 
 it is plenty. 
 
 Pleonasm. Redundancy or pleonasm is the use of more 
 words than are necessary to express the thought clearly. 
 " They returned back again to the same city from whence 
 they came forth " : the five words in italics are redundant 
 or pleonastic. "The different departments of science and 
 of art mutually reflect light on each other" : either of the 
 expressions in italics embodies the whole idea. '' The uni- 
 versal opinion of all men " is a pleonastic expression often 
 heard. " I wrote you a letter yesterday " : here a letter is 
 redundant. 
 
 Redundancy is sometimes permissible for the surer con- 
 veyance of meaning, for emphasis,- and in the language of 
 poetic embellishment. 
 
 Polite. This word is much used by persons of doubt- 
 ful culture, where those of the better sort use the word 
 kind. We accept kind, not polite invitations ; and, when 
 any one has been obliging, we tell him that he has been 
 kind ; and, when an interviewing reporter tells us of his 
 having met with a polite reception, we may be sure that the 
 person by whom he has been received deserves well for his 
 considerate kindness. " I thank you and Mrs. Pope for 
 my kind reception." Atterbury. 
 
 Portion. This word is often incorrectly used for part. 
 A portion is properly a part assigned, allotted, set aside for 
 a special purpose ; a share, a division. The verb to por- 
 tion means to divide, to parcel, to endow. We ask, there- 
 fore, " In what part [not, in what portion] of the country, 
 state, county, town, or street do you live ? " or, if we pre- 
 fer grandiloquence to correctness, reside. In the sentence, 
 " A large po rtion of the land is untilled," the right word
 
 THE VERBALIST. 143 
 
 would be either part or proportion, according to the inten- 
 tion of the writer. 
 
 Posted. A word very much and very inelegantly used 
 for informed. Such expressions as, " I will post you," " I 
 must post myself up," " If I had been better posted" and 
 the like, are, at the best, but one remove from slang. 
 
 Predicate. This word is often very incorrectly used 
 in the sense of to base ; as, "He predicates his opinion on 
 insufficient data." Then we sometimes hear people talk 
 about predicating an action upon certain information or 
 upon somebody's statement. To predicate means primarily 
 to speak before, and has come to be properly used in the 
 sense of assumed or believed to be the consequence of. 
 Examples : " Contentment is predicated of virtue " ; " Good 
 health may be predicated of a good constitution." He who 
 is not very sure that he uses the word correctly would do 
 better not to use it at all. 
 
 Prejudice Prepossess. Both these words mean, to 
 incline in one direction or the other for some reason 
 not founded in justice ; but by common consent prejudice 
 has come to be used in an unfavorable sense, and prepos- 
 sess in a favorable one. Thus, we say, " He is prejudiced 
 against him," and " He is prepossessed in his favor." We 
 sometimes hear the expression, " He is prejudiced in his 
 favor," but this can not be accounted a good use of the 
 word. 
 
 Prepositions. The errors made in the use of the prep- 
 ositions are very numerous. " The indolent child is one 
 who [that ?] has a strong aversion from action of any sort." 
 Graham's " English Synonymes," p. 236. The prevailing 
 and best modern usage is in favor of to instead of from 
 after averse and aversion, and before the object. " Clear- 
 ness . . . enables the reader to see thoughts without notic- 
 10
 
 14.4 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 ing the language with which they are clothed." Town, 
 send's " Art of Speech." We clothe thoughts in language. 
 " Shakespeare . . . and the Bible are . . . models for the 
 English-speaking tongue." Ibid. If this means models of 
 English, then it should be of ; but if it means models for 
 English organs of speech to practice on, then it should be 
 for ; or if it means models to model English tongues after, 
 then also it should be for. " If the resemblance is too 
 faint, the mind is fatigued -while attempting to trace the 
 analogies." "Aristotle is in error "while thus describing 
 governments." Ibid. Here we have two examples, not 
 of the misuse of the preposition, but of the erroneous use 
 of the adverb -while instead of the preposition in. "For 
 my part I can not think that Shelley's poetry, except by 
 snatches and fragments, has the value of the good work of 
 Wordsworth or Byron." Matthew Arnold. Should be, 
 " except in snatches." " Taxes with us are collected nearly 
 [almost] solely from real and personal estate." " Apple- 
 tons' Journal." Taxes are levied on estates and collected 
 from the owners. 
 
 " If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, 
 I may hope to be pardoned for their brevity." Cobbett 
 comments on this sentence as follows : " We may com- 
 mend him for the beauty of his works, and we may pardon 
 him for their brevity, if we deem the brevity a fault ; but 
 this is not what he means. He means that, at any rate, he 
 shall have the merit of brevity. ' If I am not commended 
 for the beauty of my works, I may hope to be pardoned on 
 .account of their brevity.' This is what the Doctor meant ; 
 but this would have marred a little the antithesis : it would 
 have unsettled a little of the balance of that seesaw in 
 which Dr. Johnson so much delighted, and which, falling 
 into the hands of novel-writers and of members of Parlia-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 145 
 
 ment, has, by moving unencumbered with any of the Doc- 
 tor's reason or sense, lulled so many thousands asleep ! 
 Dr. Johnson created a race of writers and speakers. ' Mr. 
 Speaker, that the state of the nation is very critical, all men 
 will allow ; but that it is wholly desperate, few will be- 
 lieve.' When you hear or see a sentence like this, be sure 
 that the person who speaks or writes it has been reading 
 Dr. Johnson, or some of his imitators. But, observe, these 
 imitators go no further than the frame of the sentences. 
 They, in general, take care not to imitate the Doctor in 
 knowledge and reasoning." 
 
 The rhetoricians would have us avoid such forms of ex- 
 pression as, " The boy went to and asked the advice of his 
 teacher"; "I called on and had a conversation -with my 
 brother." 
 
 Very often the preposition is not repeated in a sentence, 
 when it shourd be. We say properly, " He comes from 
 Ohio or from Indiana" ; or, " He comes either from Ohio 
 or Indiana." 
 
 Prepossess. See PREJUDICE. 
 
 Present Introduce. Few errors are more common, 
 especially among those who are always straining to be fine, 
 than that of using present, in the social world, instead of 
 introduce. Present means to place in the presence of a 
 superior ; introduce, to bring to be acquainted. A person is 
 presented at court, and on an official occasion to our Presi- 
 dent ; but persons who are unknown to each other are 
 introduced by a common acquaintance. And in these in= 
 troductions, it is the younger who is introduced to the 
 older ; the lower to the higher in place or social position ; 
 the gentleman to the lady. A lady should say, as a rule, 
 that Mr. Blank was introduced to her, not that she was 
 introduced to Mr. Blank.
 
 146 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Presumptive. This word is sometimes misused by the 
 careless far presumptuous. 
 
 Preventive. A useless and unwarranted syllable is 
 sometimes added to this word -preventative. 
 
 Previous. This adjective is much used in an adverbial 
 sense ; thus, "Previous to my return," etc. Until previous 
 is recognized as an adverb, if we would speak grammatical- 
 ly, we must say, "Previously to my return." "Previously 
 to my leaving England, I called on his lordship." 
 
 Procure. This is a word much used by people who 
 strive to be fine. " Where did you get it ? " with them is, 
 "Where did yon procure it ?" 
 
 Profanity. The extent to which some men habitually 
 interlard their talk with oaths is disgusting even to many 
 who, on occasion, do not themselves hesitate to give ex- 
 pression to their feelings in oaths portly and unctuous. If 
 these fellows could be made to know how offensive to 
 decency they make themselves, they would, perhaps, be 
 less profane. 
 
 Promise. This word is sometimes very improperly 
 used for assure ; thus, "I promise you I was very much 
 astonished." 
 
 Pronouns of the First Person. " The ordinary uses 
 of ' I ' and ' we,' as the singular and plural pronouns of the 
 first person, would appear to be above all ambiguity, un- 
 certainty, or dispute. Yet when we consider the force of 
 the plural ' we,' we are met with a contradiction ; for, as 
 a rule, only one person can speak at the same time to the 
 same audience. It is only by some exceptional arrange- 
 ment, or some latitude or license of expression, that several 
 persons can be conjoint speakers. For example, a plurality 
 may sing together in chorus, and may join in the responses 
 at church, or in the simultaneous repetition of the Lord's
 
 THE VERBALIST. 147 
 
 Prayer or the Creed. Again, one person may be the au- 
 thorized spokesman in delivering a judgment or opinion 
 held by a number of persons in common. Finally, in writ- 
 ten compositions, the ' we ' is not unsuitable, because a 
 plurality of persons may append their names to a document 
 
 " A speaker using ' we ' may speak for himself and one 
 or more others ; commonly he stands forward as the repre- 
 sentative of a class, more or less comprehensive. ' As soon 
 as my companion and I had entered the field, we saw a 
 man coming toward us' ; ' -we like our new curate ' ; ' you 
 do us poets the greatest injustice ' ; ' we must see to the 
 efficiency of our forces.' The widest use of the pronoun 
 will be mentioned presently. 
 
 " ' We ' is used for ' I ' in the decrees of persons in au- 
 thority ; as when King Lear says : 
 
 ' Know that we have divided 
 In three our kingdom.' 
 
 By the fiction of plurality a veil of modesty is thrown over 
 the assumption of vast superiority over human beings gen- 
 erally. Or, ' we ' may be regarded as an official form where- 
 by the speaker personally is magnified or enabled to rise to 
 the dignity of the occasion. 
 
 " The editorial 'we' is to be understood on the same 
 principle. An author using ' we ' appears as if he were not 
 alone, but sharing with other persons the responsibility of 
 his views. 
 
 "This representative position is at its utmost stretch in 
 the practice of using ' we ' for human beings generally ; as 
 in discoursing on the laws of human nature. The preach. 
 er, the novelist, or the philosopher, in dwelling upon the 
 peculiarity of our common constitution, being himself an 
 example of what he is speaking of, associates the rest of 
 mankind with him, and speaks collectively by means \>f
 
 ,48 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 ' we.' * We are weak and fallible ' ; ' we are of yesterday ' ; 
 1 we are doomed to dissolution.' ' Here have we no con- 
 tinuing city, but we seek one to come.' 
 
 "It is not unfrequent to have in one sentence, or in 
 close proximity, both the editorial and the representative 
 meaning, the effect being ambiguity and confusion. ' Let 
 us [the author] now consider why we [humanity generally] 
 overrate distant good.' In such a case the author should 
 fallback upon the singular for himself '/will now con- 
 sider .' ' We [speaker] think we [himself and hearers 
 together] should come to the conclusion.' Say, either'/ 
 think,' or 'you would." 
 
 " The following extract from Butler exemplifies a similar 
 confusion : ' Suppose we [representative] are capable of 
 happiness and of misery in degrees equally intense and 
 extreme, yet we [rep.] are capable of the latter for a much 
 longer time, beyond all comparison. We [change of sub- 
 ject to a limited class] see men in the tortures of pain . 
 Such is our [back to representative] make that anything 
 may become the instrument of pain and sorrow to us.' 
 The ' we ' at the commencement of the second sentence 
 ' We see men in the tortures ' could be advantageously 
 changed to 'you,' or the passive construction could be 
 substituted ; the remaining we's would then be consistently 
 representative. 
 
 " From the greater emphasis of singularity, energetic 
 speakers and writers sometimes use ' I ' as representative of 
 mankind at large. Thus : ' The current impressions re- 
 ceived through the senses are not voluntary in origin. What 
 / see in walking is seen because / have an organ of vision.' 
 The question of general moral obligation is forcibly stated 
 by Paley in the individual form, ' Why am / obliged to 
 keep my word ? ' It is sometimes well to confine the atten-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 149 
 
 tion of the hearer or reader to his own relation to the 
 matter under consideration, more especially in difficult or 
 non-popular argument or exposition. The speaker, by 
 using ' I,' does the action himself, or makes himself the 
 example, the hearer being expected to put himself in the 
 same position." Bain's " Composition Grammar." 
 
 Pronouns of the Second Person. " Anomalous usages 
 have sprung up in connection with these pronouns. The 
 plural form has almost wholly superseded the singular ; a 
 usage more than five centuries old.* 
 
 " The motive is courtesy. The singling out of one per- 
 son for address is supposed to be a liberty or an excess of 
 familiarity ; and the effect is softened or diluted by the 
 fiction of taking in others. If our address is uncompliment- 
 ary, the sting is lessened by the plural form ; and if the 
 reverse, the shock to modesty is not so great. This is a 
 refinement that was unknown to the ancient languages. 
 The orators of Greece delighted in the strong, pointed, 
 personal appeal implied in the singular ' thou.' In modern 
 German, ' thou ' (du) is the address of familiarity and in- 
 timacy ; while the ordinary pronoun is the curiously in- 
 direct ' they ' ( .SiV). On solemn occasions, we may revert 
 to ' thou.' Cato, in his meditative soliloquy on reading 
 Plato's views on the immortality of the soul before killing 
 himself, says : ' Plato, thou reasonest well.' So in the 
 Commandments, 'thou' addresses to each individual an 
 unavoidable appeal : ' Thou shalt not .' But our ordi- 
 nary means of making the personal appeal is, ' you, sir,' 
 
 'you, madam,' 'ray Lord, you ,' etc. ; we reserve 'thou' 
 
 for the special case of addressing the Deity. The applica- 
 tion of the motive of courtesy is here reversed ; it would be 
 
 * " The use of the plural for the singular was established as early as 
 the beginning of the fourteenth century." Morris, p. 118, 153.
 
 150 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 irreverent to merge this vast personality in a promiscuous 
 assemblage. 
 
 "'You' is not unfrequently employed, like 'we,' as a 
 representative pronoun. The action is represented with 
 great vividness, when the person or persons addressed may 
 be put forward as the performers : ' There is such an echo 
 among the old ruins and vaults, that if you stamp a little 
 louder than ordinary, you hear the sound repeated ' ; ' Some 
 practice is required to see these animals in the thick forest, 
 even when yoti hear them close by you.' 
 
 " There should not be a mixture of ' thou ' and ' you ' 
 in the same passage. Thus, Thackeray (Adventures of 
 Philip) : ' So, as thy sun rises, friend, over the humble 
 house-tops round about your home, shall you wake many 
 and many a day to duty and labor.' So, Cooper (Water- 
 Witch) : ' 7^02/hast both master and mistress? You have 
 told us of the latter, but we would kftow something of the 
 former. Who is thy master?' Shakespeare, Scott, and 
 others might also be quoted. 
 
 " ' Ye' and ' you ' were at one time strictly distinguished 
 as different cases; 'ye' was nominative, 'you' objective 
 (dative or accusative). But the Elizabethan dramatists con- 
 founded the forms irredeemably ; and ' you ' has gradually 
 ousted ' ye ' from ordinary use. ' Ye ' is restricted to the 
 expression of strong feeling, and in this employment occurs 
 chiefly in the poets." Bain's "Composition Grammar." 
 
 Proof. This word is much and very improperly used 
 for evidence, which is only the medium of proof, proof being 
 the effect of evidence. " What evidence have you to offer in 
 proof of the truth of your statement ? " See also EVIDENCE. 
 
 Propose Purpose. Writers and speakers often fail to 
 discriminate properly between the respective meanings of 
 these two verbs. Propose, correctly used, means, to put
 
 THE VERBALIST. 1?1 
 
 forward or to offer for tJte consideration of others ; hence, a 
 proposal is a scheme or design offered for acceptance or con- 
 sideration, a proposition. Purpose means, to intend, to 
 design, to resolve ; hence, a purpose is an intention, an aim, 
 that which one sets before one's self. Examples : " What 
 do you purpose doing in the matter?" "What do you 
 propose that we shall do in the matter ? " "I will do " means 
 " I purpose doing, or to do." " I purpose to write a history 
 of England from the accession of King James the Second 
 down to a time which is within the memory of men still 
 living." Macaulay. It will be observed that Macaulay 
 says, " I purpose to write," and not, " I purpose -wtiting" 
 using the verb in the infinitive rather than in the participial 
 form. "On which he purposed to mount one of his little 
 guns." See INFINITIVE. 
 
 Proposition. This word is often used when proposal 
 would be better, for the reason that proposal has but one 
 meaning, and is shorter by one syllable. " He demon- 
 strated the proposition of Euclid, and rejected the proposal 
 of his friend." 
 
 Prosaist. Dr. Hall is of opinion that this is a word 
 we shall do well to encourage. It is used by good writers. 
 
 Proven. This form for the past participle of the verb 
 to prove is said to be a Scotticism. It is not used by careful 
 writers and speakers. The correct form is proved. 
 
 Providing. The present participle of the verb to pro* 
 vide is sometimes vulgarly used for the conjunction provided, 
 as in this sentence from the " London Queen " : " Society 
 may be congratulated, . . . providing that," etc. 
 
 Provoke. See AGGRAVATE. 
 
 Punctuation. The importance of punctuation can not 
 be overestimated ; it not only helps to make plain the mean- 
 ing of what one writes, but it may prevent one's being mis-
 
 1 5 Z 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 construed. Though no two writers could be found who 
 punctuate just alike, still in the main those who pay atten- 
 tion to the art put in their stops in essentially the same 
 manner. The difference that punctuation may make in the 
 meaning of language is well illustrated by the following 
 anecdote : 
 
 At Ramessa there lived a benevolent and hospitable 
 prior, who caused these lines to be painted over his door : 
 " Be open evermore, 
 O thou my door ! 
 To none be shut to honest or to poor ! " 
 
 In time the good prior was succeeded by a man as selfish 
 as his predecessor was generous. The lines over the door 
 of the priory were allowed to remain ; one stop, however, 
 was altered, which made them read thus : 
 " Be open evermore, 
 O thou my door ! 
 To none be shut to honest or to poor ! " 
 
 He punctuates best who makes his punctuation con- 
 tribute most to the clear expression of his thought ; and 
 that construction is best that has least need of being punc- 
 tuated. 
 
 THE COMMA. The chief difference in the punctuation 
 of different writers is usually in their use of the comma, in 
 regard to which there is a good deal of latitude ; much is 
 left to individual taste. Nowadays the best. practice uses 
 it sparingly. An idea of the extent to which opinions 
 differ with regard to the use of the comma may be formed 
 from the following excerpt from a paper prepared for 
 private use : 
 
 " In the following examples, gathered from various 
 sources chiefly from standard books the superfluous com- 
 mas are inclosed in parentheses :
 
 THE VERBALIST. 153 
 
 " I. 'It remains(,) perhaps(,) to be said(,) that, if any 
 lesson at all(,) as to these delicate matters(,) is needed(,) in 
 this period, it is not so much a lesson,' etc. 2. ' The obe- 
 dience is not due to the power of a right authority, but to 
 the spirit of fear, and(,) therefore(,) is(,) in reality(,) no 
 obedience at all.' 3. ' The patriot disturbances in Canada 
 . . . awakened deep interest among the people of the United 
 States(,) who lived adjacent to the frontier.' 4. ' Observers(>) 
 who have recently investigated this point(,) do not all agree,' 
 etc. 5. ' The wind did(,) in an instant(,) what man and 
 steam together had failed to do in hours.' 6. 'All the cabin 
 passengers(,) situated beyond the center of the boat(,) were 
 saved.' 7. ' No other writer has depicted(,) with so much 
 art or so much accuracy(,) the habits, the manners,' etc. 8. 
 ' If it shall give satisfaction to those who have(,) in any way(,) 
 befriended it, the author will feel,' etc. 9. ' Fonned(,) or 
 consisting of(,) clay.' 10. ' The subject [witchcraft] grew 
 interesting ; and(,) to examine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth 
 Proctor, the deputy-governor(,) and five other magistrates^) 
 went to Salem.' n. ' The Lusitanians(,) who had not left 
 their home(,) rose as a man, 'etc. 12. ' Vague reports . . . had 
 preceded him to Washington, and his Mississippi friends(,) 
 who chanced to be at the capitalQ were not backward to 
 make their boast of him.' 13. ' Our faith has acquired a 
 new vigor(,) and a clearer vision.' 14. ' In iSigQ he re- 
 moved to Cambridge.' 15. ' Dore was born at Strasburg(,) 
 in 1832, and labors,' etc. 16. ' We should never apply dry 
 compresses, charpie, or wadding(,) to the wound.' 17. ' to 
 stand idle, to look, act, or think(,) in a leisurely way." 18. 
 ' portraits taken from the farmers, schoolmasters, and 
 peasantry(,) of the neighborhood.' 19. ' gladly wel- 
 comed painters of Flanders, Holland, and Spain(,) to their 
 shores.'
 
 154 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " In all these cases, the clauses between or following the 
 inclosed commas are so closely connected grammatically 
 with the immediately preceding words or phrases, that they 
 should be read without a perceptible pause, or with only a 
 slight one for breath, without change of voice. Some of 
 the commas would grossly pervert the meaning if strictly 
 construed. Thus, from No. 3 it wculd appear that the 
 people of the United States in general lived adjacent to the 
 frontier ; from No. 4, that all observers have recently in- 
 vestigated the point in question ; from No. 6, that all the 
 cabin passengers were so situated that they were saved, 
 whereas it is meant that only a certain small proportion of 
 them were saved ; from No. 10 (Bancroft), that somebody 
 whose name is accidentally omitted went to Salem ' to ex- 
 amine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor, the deputy- 
 governor, and five other magistrates'; from No. n, that 
 none of the Lusitanians had left their home, whereas it was 
 the slaughter by the Romans of a great number of them who 
 had left their home that caused the rising. 
 
 " Commas are frequently omitted, and in certain posi- 
 tions very generally, where the sense and correct reading 
 require a pause. In the following examples, such commas, 
 omitted in the works from which they were taken, are in- 
 closed in brackets : 
 
 " I. ' The modes of thought[,] and the types of charac- 
 ter which those modes proclucef,] are essentially and uni- 
 versally transformed.' 2. ' Taken by itselff,] this doctrine 
 could have no effect whatever ; indeed[,] it would amount 
 to nothing but a verbal proposition.' 3. ' Far belowf,] the 
 little stream of the Oder foamed over the rocks.' 4. ' When 
 the day returned[,] the professor, the artist[,] and I rowed 
 to within a hundred yards of the shore.' 5. ' Proceeding 
 into the interior of India[,] they passed through Belgaum/
 
 THE VERBALIST. 155 
 
 6. ' If Loring is defeated in the Sixth District[,] it can be 
 borne.' 
 
 " In No. 3, the reader naturally enunciates ' the little 
 stream of the Oder ' as in the objective case after ' below ' ; 
 but there he comes to a predicate which compels him to go 
 back and read differently. In No. 4, it appears that ' the 
 day returned the professor,' and then ' the artist and I 
 rowed,' etc." 
 
 All clauses should generally be isolated by commas ; 
 where, however, the connection is very close or the clause 
 is very short, no point may be necessary. " But his pride 
 is greater than his ignorance, and what he wants in knowl- 
 edge he supplies by sufficiency." " A man of polite imagi- 
 nation can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable 
 companion in a statue." "Though he slay me, yet will I 
 trust him." " The prince, his father being dead, suc- 
 ceeded." "To confess the truth, I was much at fault." 
 " As the heart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth 
 my soul after thee." "Where the bee sucks, there suck 
 I." " His father dying, he succeeded to the estate." 
 " The little that is known, and the circumstance that little 
 is known, must be considered as honorable to him." 
 
 The comma is used before and after a phrase when co- 
 ordinating and not restrictive. " The jury, having retired 
 for half an hour, brought in a verdict." "The stranger, 
 unwilling to obtrude himself on our notice, left in the 
 morning." " Rome, the city of the Emperors, became the 
 city of the Popes." " His stories, which made everybody 
 laugh, were often made to order." "He did not come, 
 which I greatly regret." " The younger, who was yet a 
 boy, had nothing striking in his appearance." " They 
 passed the cup to the stranger, who drank heartily." 
 " Peace at any price, which these orators seem to advo-
 
 156 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 cate, means war at any cost." " Sailors, who are generally 
 superstitious, say it is unlucky to embark on Friday." 
 
 Adverbs and short phrases, -when they break the con- 
 nection, should be between commas. Some of the most 
 common words and phrases so used are the following : 
 Also, too, there, indeed, perhaps, surely, moreover, like- 
 wise, however, finally, namely, therefore, apparently, mean- 
 while, consequently, unquestionably, accordingly, notwith- 
 standing, in truth, in fact, in short, in general, in reality, 
 no doubt, of course, as it were, at all events, to be brief, 
 to be sure, now and then, on the contrary, in a word, by 
 chance, in that case, in the mean time, for the most part. 
 " History, in a word, is replete with moral lessons." "As 
 an orator, however, he was not great." "There is, re- 
 member, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a vir- 
 tue." " Our civilization, therefore, is not an unmixed 
 good." " This, I grant you, is not of great importance." 
 
 If, however, the adverb does not break the connection, 
 but readily coalesces with the rest of the sentence, the 
 commas are omitted. " Morning will come at last, how- 
 ever dark the night may be." " We then proceeded on 
 our way." " Our civilization is therefore not an unmixed 
 good." " Patience, I say ; your mind perhaps may 
 change." 
 
 Adverbial phrases and clauses beginning a sentence are 
 set off by commas. "In truth, I could not tell." "To 
 sum up, the matter is this." " Everything being ready, 
 they set out." "By looking a little deeper, the reason 
 will be found." " Finally, let me sum up the argument." 
 " If the premises were admitted, I should deny the conclu- 
 sion." " Where your treasure is, there will your heart be 
 also." 
 
 Words used in apposition should be isolated by com-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 157 
 
 mas. " Newton, the great mathematician, was very mod- 
 est." " And he, their prince, shall rank among my peers." 
 In such sentences, however, as, " The mathematician New- 
 ton was very modest," and " The Emperor Napoleon was 
 a great soldier," commas are not used. 
 
 The name or designation of a person addressed is iso- 
 lated by commas. " It touches you, my lord, as well as 
 me." "John, come here." " Mr. President, my object is 
 peace." " Tell me, boy, where do you live?" " Yes, sir, 
 I will do as you say." " Mr. Brown, what is your number? " 
 
 Pairs of words. " Old and young, rich and poor, wise 
 and foolish, were involved." " Sink or swim, live or die, 
 survive or perish, I give my hand and heart to this vote." 
 "Interest and ambition, honor and shame, friendship and 
 enmity, gratitude and revenge, are the prime movers in 
 public transactions." 
 
 A restrictive clause is not separated by a comma from 
 the noun. " Every one must love a boy who [that] is at- 
 tentive and docile." " He preaches sublimely who [that] 
 lives a holy life." " The things which [that] are seen are 
 temporal." " A king depending on the support of his sub- 
 jects can not rashly go to war." " The sailor who [that] is 
 not superstitious will embark any day." 
 
 The comma is used after adjectives, nouns, and verbs 
 in sentences like the following : 
 
 " Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils 
 
 Shrunk to this little measure ? " 
 " He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all." 
 " Who to the enraptured heart, and ear, and eye 
 
 Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody." * 
 
 * " Some writers omit the comma in cases where the conjunction is 
 used. But, as the conjunction is generally employed in such cases for 
 emphasis, commas ought to be used ; although, where the words are
 
 158 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " He rewarded his friends, chastised his foes, set 
 Justice on her seat, and made his conquest secure." 
 
 The comma is used to separate adjectives in opposition, 
 but closely connected. "Though deep, yet clear; though 
 gentle, yet not dull." " Liberal, not lavish, is kind Na- 
 ture's hand." " Though black, yet comely ; and though 
 rash, benign." 
 
 After a nominative, where the verb is understood. 
 " To err is human ; to forgive, divine." " A wise man 
 seeks to shine in himself; a fool, in others." "Conversa- 
 tion makes a ready man ; writing, an exact man ; reading, 
 a full man." 
 
 A long subject is often separated from the predicate by 
 a comma. " Any one that refuses to earn an honest liveli- 
 hood, is not an object of charity." " The circumstance of 
 his being unprepared to adopt immediate and decisive 
 measures, was represented to the Government." " That 
 he had persistently disregarded every warning and per- 
 severed in his reckless course, had not yet undermined 
 his credit with his dupes." " That the work of forming 
 and perfecting the character is difficult, is generally al- 
 lowed." 
 
 In a series of adjectives that precede their noun, a 
 comma is placed after each except the last ; there usage 
 omits the point. " A beautiful, tall, willowy, sprightly 
 girl." " A quick, brilliant, studious, learned man." * 
 
 A comma is placed between short members of corn- 
 very closely connected, or where they constitute a clause in the midst 
 of a long sentence, they may be omitted." Bigelow's "Handbook of 
 Punctuation." 
 
 * " This usage violates one of the fundamental principles of punc- 
 tuation ; it indicates, very improperly, that the noun man is more 
 closely connected with learned than with the other adjectives. Anal- 
 ogy and perspicuity require a comma after learned." Quackenbos.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 159 
 
 pound sentences, connected by and, but, for, nor, or, because, 
 whereas, that expressing purpose (so that, in order that), 
 and other conjunctions. " Be virtuous, that you may be 
 respected." " Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty." 
 " Man proposes, but God disposes." 
 
 A comma must not be placed before that except when 
 it is equivalent to in order that. " He says that \\ f , will be 
 here." 
 
 A comma must not be placed before and when it con- 
 nects two words only. " Time and tide wait for no man." 
 "A rich and prosperous people." " Plain and honest truth 
 wants no artificial covering." 
 
 A comma is sometimes necessary to prevent ambiguity. 
 " He who pursues pleasure only defeats the object of his 
 creation." Without a comma before or after only, the 
 meaning of this sentence is doubtful. 
 
 The following sentences present some miscellaneous 
 examples of the use of the comma by writers on punctu- 
 ation : "Industry, as well as genius, is essential to the 
 production of great works." " Prosperity is secured to a 
 state, not by the acquisition of territory or riches, but by 
 the encouragement of industry." "Your manners are af- 
 fable, and, for the most part, pleasing." * 
 
 " However fairly a bad man may appear to act, we 
 distrust him." "Why, this is rank injustice." "Well, 
 follow the dictates of your inclination." " The comma 
 may be omitted in the case of too, also, therefore, andper- 
 haps, when introduced so as not to interfere with the har- 
 monious flow of the- period ; and, particularly, when the 
 sentence is short." f " Robert Horton, M. D., F. R. S." 
 " To those who labor, sleep is doubly pleasant " ; " Sleep 
 
 * Many writers would omit the last two commas in this sentence, 
 t The commas before and niter particularly are hardly necessary 
 11
 
 l6o THE VERBALIST. 
 
 is doubly pleasant to those who labor." " Those who 
 persevere, succeed." "To be overlooked, slighted, and 
 neglected ; to be misunderstood, misrepresented, and slan- 
 dered ; to be trampled under foot by the envious, the igno- 
 rant, and the vile ; to be crushed by foes, and to be dis- 
 trusted and betrayed even by friends such is too often the 
 fate of genius." " She is tall, though not so handsome as 
 her sister." "Verily, verily, I say unto you." "Whatever 
 is, is right." " What is foreordained to be, will be." "The 
 Emperor Augustus was a patron of the fine arts." "Au- 
 gustus, the Emperor, was a patron of the fine arts." 
 " United, we stand ; divided, we fall." " God said, Let 
 there be light." "July 21, 1881." "President Garfield 
 was shot, Saturday morning, July 2, 1881 ; he died, Monday 
 night, Sept. 19, 1881." "I am, sir, very respectfully, ycur 
 obedient servant, John Jones." " New York, August, 
 1881." "Room 20, Equitable Building, Broadway, New 
 York." 
 
 " When you are in doubt as to the propriety of inserting 
 commas, omit them ; IT is BETTER TO HAVE TOO FEW THAN 
 TOO MANY." Quackenbos. 
 
 THE SEMICOLON. Reasons are preceded by semicolons ; 
 " Economy is no disgrace ; for it is better to live on a little 
 than to outlive a great deal." Clauses in opposition are 
 separated by a semicolon when the second is introduced by 
 an adversative : "Straws swim at the surface ; but pearls 
 lie at the bottom " ; " Lying lips are an abomination to the 
 Lord ; but they that deal truly are his delight." Without 
 the adversative, the colon is to be preferred : " Prosperity 
 showeth vice : adversity, virtue." The great divisions of a 
 sentence must be pointed with a semicolon when the minor 
 divisions are pointed with commas : " Mirth should be the 
 embroidery of conversation, not the web ; and wit the orna-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 161 
 
 ment of the mind, not the furniture." The things enu- 
 merated must be separated by semicolons, when the enun- 
 ciation of particulars is preceded by a colon : " The value 
 of a maxim depends on four things : the correctness of the 
 principle it embodies ; the subject to which it relates ; the 
 extent of its application ; and the ease with which it may 
 be practically carried out." When as introduces an ex- 
 ample, it is preceded by a semicolon. When several 
 successive clauses have a common connection with a pre- 
 ceding or following clause, they are separated by semi- 
 colons ; as, " Children, as they gamboled on the beach ; 
 reapers, as they gathered the harvest ; mowers, as they 
 rested from using the scythe ; mothers, as they busied them- 
 selves about the household were victims to an enemy, 
 who disappeared the moment a blow was struck." " Reason 
 as we may, it is impossible not to read in such a fate much 
 that we know not how to interpret ; much of provocation 
 to cruel deeds and deep resentment ; much of apology for 
 wrong and perfidy ; much of doubt and misgiving as to the 
 past ; much of painful recollections ; much of dark fore- 
 boding." "Philosophers assert that Nature is unlimited; 
 that her treasures are endless ; that the increase of knowl- 
 edge will never cease." 
 
 THE COLON. This point is less used now than former- 
 ly : its place is supplied by the period, the semicolon, or 
 the dash ; and sometimes, even by the comma. The colon 
 is used very differently by different writers. " He was 
 heard to say, ' I have done with this world.'" Some writers 
 would put a colon, some a comma, after say. " When the 
 quoted passage is brought in without any introductory 
 word, if short," says Quackenbos, "it is generally preceded 
 by a comma ; if long, by a colon ; as, ' A simpleton, meet- 
 ing a philosopher, asked him, " What affords wise men the
 
 162 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 greatest pleasure ? " Turning on his heel, the sage replied, 
 " To get rid of fools." ' 
 
 Formal enumerations of particulars, and direct quota- 
 tions, when introduced by such phrases as in these -words, 
 as follows, the following, namely, this, these, thus, etc., are 
 properly preceded by a colon. " We hold these truths to 
 be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; that they 
 are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
 of happiness." " Lord Bacon has summed up the whole 
 matter in the following words : ' A little philosophy in- 
 clineth men's minds to atheism ; but depth in philosophy 
 bringeth men's minds to religion.' " " The human family 
 is composed of five races : first, the Caucasian ; second, 
 the Mongolian ; third, the," etc. 
 
 "All were attentive to the godlike man, 
 When from his lofty couch he thus began : 
 ' Great queen,' " etc. Dryden. 
 
 When the quotation, or other matter, begins a new 
 paragraph, the colon is, by many writers, followed with a 
 dash ; as, " The cloth being removed, the President rose 
 and said : 
 
 " ' Ladies and gentlemen, we are,' " etc. 
 
 The colon is used to mark the greater breaks in sen- 
 tences, when the lesser breaks are marked by semicolons. 
 " You have called yourself an atom in the universe ; you 
 have said that you are but an insect in the solar blaze : is 
 your present pride consistent with these professions ? " "A 
 clause is either independent or dependent : independent, ^ 
 if it forms an assertion by itself; dependent, if it enters 
 into some other clause with the value of a part of speech." 
 A colon is sometimes used instead of a period to separate 
 two short sentences, which are closely connected. " Never
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 163 
 
 flatter people : leave that to such as mean to betray them." 
 " Some things we can, and others we can not do : we can 
 walk, but we can not fly." 
 
 THE PERIOD. Complete sentences are always followed 
 either by a period, or by an exclamation or an interrogation 
 point.* 
 
 The period is also used after abbreviations ; as, R. D. 
 Van Nostrand, St. Louis, Mo. ; Jno. B. Morris, M. D., 
 F. R. S., London, Eng. ; Jas. W. Wallack, Jr., New York 
 City, N. Y. ; Jas. B. Roberts, Elocutionist, Phila., Pa. 
 
 INTERROGATION-POINT. This point is used after ques- 
 tions put by the writer, and after questions reported direct- 
 ly. " What can I do for you ? " " Where are you going ? " 
 " What do you say ? " cried the General. " The child still 
 lives?" It should not be used when the question is re- 
 ported indirectly. " He asked me where I was going." 
 " The Judge asked the witness if he believed the man to 
 be guilty." 
 
 EXCLAMATION-POINT. This mark is placed after in- 
 terjections, after sentences and clauses of sentences of pas- 
 sionate import, and after solemn invocations and addresses. 
 " Zounds ! the man's in earnest." " Pshaw ! what can we 
 do ? " " Bah ! what's that to me ? " " Indeed ! then I must 
 look to it." " Look, my lord, it comes ! " " Rest, rest, 
 perturbed spirit ! " " O heat, dry up my brains ! " " Dear 
 maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!" "While in this part 
 of the country, I once more revisited and, alas, with what 
 melancholy presentiments! the home of my youth." "O 
 rose of May ! " " Oh, from this time forth, my thoughts 
 be bloody or be nothing worth ! " " O heavens ! die two 
 months ago, and not forgotten yet ? " 
 
 * The only exception to this rule is the occasional use of the colon 
 to separate two short sentences that are closely connected.
 
 164 THE VERBALIST, 
 
 " Night, sable goddess ! from her ebon throne, 
 In rayless majesty now stretches forth 
 Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world. 
 Silence, how dead ! and darkness, how profound " ! 
 
 Young. 
 
 " Hail, holy light ! offspring of heaven just born ! " Miltoa 
 " But thou, O Hope ! with eyes so fair, 
 What was thy delighted measure ? " Collins. 
 
 It will be observed that the interjection O is an excep- 
 tion to the rule : it is often followed by a comma, but never 
 by an exclamation-point. 
 
 An exclamation-point sometimes gives the same words 
 quite another meaning. The difference between " What's 
 that ? " and " What's that ! " is obvious. 
 
 THE DASH. Cobbett did not favor the use of this mark, 
 as we see from the following : " Let me caution you against 
 the use of what, by some, is called the dash. The dash is 
 a stroke along the line ; thus, ' I am rich I was poor I 
 shall be poor again. 1 This is wild work indeed ! Who is 
 to know what is intended by these dashes ? Those who 
 have thought proper, like Mr. Lindley Murray, to place the 
 dash amongst the grammatical points, ought to give us some 
 rule relative to its different longitudinal dimensions in dif- 
 ferent cases. The inch, the three-quarter-inch, the half- 
 inch, the quarter-inch : these would be something determi- 
 nate ; but ' the dash,' without measure, must be a perilous 
 thing for the young grammarian to handle. In short, ' the 
 dash ' is a cover for ignorance as to the use of points, and it 
 can answer no other purpose." 
 
 This is one of the few instances in which Cobbett was 
 wrong. The dash is the proper point with which to mark 
 an unexpected or emphatic pause, or a sudden break or tran- 
 sition. It is very often preceded by another point. " And
 
 THE VERBALIST. 165 
 
 Huitzilopochtli a sweet name to roll under one's tongue 
 for how many years has this venerable war-god blinked in 
 the noonday sun ! " " Crowds gathered about the news- 
 paper bulletins, recalling the feverish scenes that occurred 
 when the President's life was thought to be hanging by a 
 thread. ' Wouldn't it be too bad,' said one, ' if, after all 
 no, I won't allow myself to think of it.' " " Was there 
 ever but I scorn to boast." " You are no, I'll not tell 
 you what you are." 
 
 " He suffered but his pangs are o'er ; 
 Enjoyed but his delights are fled ; 
 Had friends his friends are now no more ; 
 
 And foes his foes are dead." Montgomery. 
 " Greece, Carthage, Rome, where are they ? " " He chas- 
 tens ; but he chastens to save." 
 
 Dashes are much used where parentheses were formerly 
 employed. " In the days of Tweed the expression to divide 
 fair forcible, if not grammatical acquired much currency." 
 " In truth, the character of the great chief was depicted 
 two thousand five hundred years before his birth, and de- 
 picted such is the power of genius in colors which will 
 be fresh as many years after his death." " To render the 
 Constitution perpetual which God grant it may be ! it is 
 necessary that its benefits should be practically felt by all 
 parts of the country." 
 
 PARENTHESIS. This mark is comparatively little used 
 nowadays. The dash is preferred, probably because it 
 disfigures the page less. The office of the parenthesis is 
 to isolate a phrase which is merely incidental, and which 
 might be omitted without detriment to the grammatical 
 construction. 
 
 *" Know then this truth (enough for man to know), 
 Virtue alone is happiness below." Pope.
 
 166 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) 
 Is not to act or think beyond mankind." 
 
 BRACKETS. This mark is used principally to inclose 
 words improperly omitted by the writer, or words intro- 
 duced for the purpose of explanation or to correct an error. 
 The bracket is often used in this book. 
 
 THE APOSTROPHE. This point is used to denote the 
 omission of letters and sometimes of figures ; as, Jan'y, '8 1 ; 
 I've for I have ; you'll for you will ; 'tis for it is ; don't for 
 do not ; can't for can not ; It was in the year '93 ; the spirit 
 of '76 ; It was in the years 1812, '13, and '14. 
 
 Also to denote the possessive case ; as, Brown's house ; 
 the king's command ; Moses' staff ; for conscience' sake ; 
 the boys' garden. 
 
 Also with s to denote the plural of letters, figures, and 
 signs ; as, Cross your t's, dot your z's, and mind your/'s and 
 ^'s ; make your s's better, and take out the x's. 
 
 CAPITALS. A capital letter should begin every sen- 
 tence, every line of verse, and every direct quotation. 
 
 All names of the Deity, of Jesus Christ, of the Trinity, 
 and of the Virgin Mary must begin with a capital. Pro- 
 nouns are usually capitalized when they refer to the Deity. 
 
 Proper 'names, and nouns and adjectives formed from 
 proper names, names of streets, of the months, of the clays 
 of the week, and of the holidays, are capitalized. 
 
 Titles of nobility and of high office, when used to desig- 
 nate particular persons, are capitalized ; as, the Earl of 
 Dunraven, the Mayor of Boston, the Baron replied, the 
 Cardinal presided. 
 
 THE PARAGRAPH. In writing for the press, the division 
 of matter into paragraphs is often quite arbitrary ; in letter- 
 writing, on the contrary, the several topics treated of should, 
 as a rule, be isolated by paragraphic divisions. These di-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 167 
 
 visions give one's letters a shapely appearance that they 
 otherwise never have. 
 
 Purchase. This word is much preferred to its synonym 
 buy, by that class of people who prefer the word reside to 
 live, procure to get, inaugurate to begirt, and so on. They 
 are generally of those who are great in pretense, and who 
 would be greater still if they were to pretend to all they 
 have to pretend to. 
 
 Purpose. See PROPOSE. 
 
 Quantity. This word is often improperly used for 
 number. Quantity should be used in speaking of what is 
 measured or weighed ; number, of what is counted. Ex- 
 amples: "What quantity of apples have you, and what 
 number of pineapples?" "Delaware produces a large 
 quantity of peaches and a large number of melons." 
 
 Quit. This word means, properly, to leave, to go away 
 from, to forsake ; as, " Avaunt ! quit my sight." This is 
 the only sense in which the English use it. In America, 
 it is generally used in the sense of to leave off, to stop ; as, 
 " Quit your nonsense " ; " Quit laughing " ; " Quit your 
 noise " ; " He has quit smoking," and so on. 
 
 Quite. This word originally meant completely, per- 
 fectly, totally, entirely, fully ; and this is the sense in 
 which it was used by the early writers of English. It is 
 now often used in the sense of rather ; as, " It is quite 
 warm " ; " She is qtiite tall " ; " He is quite proficient." 
 Sometimes it is incorrectly used in the sense of consider- 
 able ; as, quite an amount, quite a number, qtiite a fortune. 
 Quite, according to good modern usage, may qualify an 
 adjective, but not a noun. " She is quite the lady," is a 
 vile phrase, meaning, " She is very or quite ladylike." 
 
 Railroad Depot. Few things are more offensive to 
 fastidious ears than to hear a railway station called a depot.
 
 168 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 A depot is properly a place where goods or stores of any 
 kind are kept ; and the places at which the trains of a rail- 
 road or, better, railway stop for passengers, or the points 
 from which they start and at which they arrive, are, prop- 
 erly, the stations. 
 
 Railway. The English prefer this word to rail- 
 road. 
 
 Raise the rent. An expression incorrectly used for 
 increase the rent. 
 
 Rarely. It is no uncommon thing to see this adverb 
 improperly used in such sentences as, " It is very rarely 
 that the puppets of the romancer assume," etc. "Apple- 
 tons' Journal," February, 1881, p. 177. " But," says the 
 defender of this phraseology, " rarely qualifies a verb the 
 verb to be." Not at all. The sentence, if written out in 
 full, would be, " It is a very rare thing that," etc., or "The 
 circumstance is a very rare one that," etc., or " It is a very 
 rare occurrence that," etc. To those who contend for 
 " It is very rarely that," etc., I would say, It is very sadly 
 that persons of culture will write and then defend or 
 rather try to defend such grammar. 
 
 Ratiocinate. See EFFECTUATE. 
 
 Real. This adjective is often vulgarly used in the 
 sense of the adverb very ; thus, real nice, real pretty, real 
 angry, real cute, and so on. 
 
 Recommend. This word, which means to commend 
 or praise to another, to declare worthy of esteem, trust, or 
 favor, is sometimes put to strange uses. Example : " Re- 
 solvad, that the tax-payers of the county be recommended to 
 meet," etc. What the resolving gentlemen meant was, 
 that the lax-payers should be counseled to meet. 
 
 Redundancy. See PLEONASM. 
 
 Reliable. This is a modem word which is often met
 
 THE VERBALIST. 169 
 
 with ; but it is not used by our careful writers. They 
 prefer its synonym trustworthy, and argue that, in conse- 
 quence of being ill-formed, reliable can not possibly have 
 the signification in which it is used. 
 
 Remainder. See BALANCE. 
 
 Rendition. This word is much misused for rendering. 
 Example : " The excellence of Mr. Gilbert's rendition of 
 certain characters, Sir Peter and Sir Antony, for instance, 
 is not equaled," etc. Rendition means the act of yield- 
 ing possession, surrender, as the rendition of a town or 
 fortress. The sentence above should read, " The excel- 
 lence of Mr. Gilbert's rendering" etc. Rendition is also 
 sometimes improperly used for performance. 
 
 Reply. See ANSWER. 
 
 Reputation. See CHARACTER. 
 
 Reside. A big word that Mr. Wouldbe uses where 
 Mr. Is uses the little word live. 
 
 Residence. In speaking of a man's domicile, it is not 
 only in better taste but more correct to use the term house 
 than residence. A man has a residence in New York, when 
 he has lived here long enough to have the right to exercise 
 the franchise here ; and he may have a hozise in Fifth 
 Avenue where he lives. People who are live in houses ; 
 people who would be reside in residences. The former 
 buy things ; the latter purchase them. 
 
 Rest. See BALANCE. 
 
 Restive. Some of the dictionaries, Richard Grant 
 White, and some other writers, contend that this word, when 
 properly used, means unwilling to go, standing still stub- 
 bornly, obstinate, stubborn, and nothing else. In com- 
 bating this opinion, Fitzedward Hall says : " Very few 
 instances, I apprehend, can be produced, from our litera- 
 ture, of this use of restive." Webster gives impatient, un
 
 170 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 easy, as a second meaning ; and this is the sense in which 
 the word is nearly always used. 
 
 Retire. It is only the over-nice who use retire in the 
 sense of go to bed. 
 
 Reverend Honorable. Many persons are in doubt 
 whether they should or should not put the before these 
 adjectives. Emphatically, yes, they should. See " Words 
 and Their Uses," by Richard Grant White, for a full dis- 
 cussion of the question ; also " Good English," by Edward 
 S. Gould. 
 
 Rhetoric. The art which has for its object the ren- 
 dering of language effective is called rhetoric. Without 
 some study of the art of composition, no one can expect to 
 write well, or to judge the literary work of others. 
 True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 
 As those move easiest who have learned to dance." 
 
 Ride Drive. Fashion, both in England and in this 
 country, says that we must always use the second of these 
 words when we speak of going out in a carriage, although 
 ride means, according to all the lexicographers, " to be car- 
 ried on a horse or other animal, or in any kind of vehicle 
 or carriage." 
 
 Right. Singularly enough, this word is made, by some 
 people, to do service for ought, in duty bound, under 
 obligation to ; thus, " You had a right to tell me," meaning, 
 "You should have told me." "The Colonists contended 
 that they had no right to pay taxes," meaning, " They were 
 under no obligation to pay taxes," i. e., that it was unjust to 
 tax them. 
 
 Right here. The expressions " right here " and " right 
 there " are Americanisms. Correctly, "just here " and " just 
 there." 
 
 Rolling. The use of this participial adjective in the
 
 THE VERBALIST. \-j\ 
 
 sense of undulating is said to be an Americanism. 
 Whether an Americanism or not, it would seem to be 
 quite unobjectionable. 
 
 Rubbers. This word, in common with gums and 
 arctics, is often, in defiance of good taste, used for over- 
 shoes. 
 
 Sabbath. This term was first used in English for Sun- 
 day, or Lord's day, by the Puritans. Nowadays it is little 
 used in this sense. The word to use is Sunday. 
 
 Sarcasm. Bain says that sarcasm is vituperation soft- 
 ened in the outward expression by the arts and figures of 
 disguise epigram, innuendo, irony and embellished with 
 the. figures of illustration. Crabb says that sarcasm is the 
 indulgence only of personal resentment, and is never justi- 
 fiable. 
 
 Satire. The holding up to ridicule of the follies and 
 weaknesses of mankind, by way of rebuke, is called satire. 
 Satire is general rather than individual, its object be- 
 ing the reformation of abuses. A lampoon, which has 
 been defined as a personal satire, attacks the individual 
 rather than his fault, and is intended to injure rather than 
 to reform. 
 
 Said Sheridan : " Satires and lampoons on particular 
 people circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the 
 friends of the parties than by printing them." 
 
 Saw. The imperfect tense of the verb to see is care- 
 lessly used by good writers and speakers when they should 
 use the perfect ; thus, " I never saw anything like it be- 
 fore," when the meaning intended is, " I have never [in all 
 my life] seen anything like it before [until now]." We say 
 properly, " I never saw anything like it when I was in 
 Paris " ; but, when the period of time referred to extends to 
 the time when the statement is made, it must be have seen.
 
 172 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Like mistakes are made in the use of other verbs, but they 
 are hardly as common ; yet we often hear such expressions 
 as, " I was never in Philadelphia," " I never went to the 
 theatre in my life," instead of have been in Philadelphia, 
 and have gone to the theatre. 
 
 Section. The use of this word for region, neighbor- 
 hood, vicinity, part (of the town or country), is said to be a 
 Westernism. A section is a division of the public lands 
 containing six hundred and forty acres. 
 
 Seem Appear. Graham, in his "English Synonymes," 
 says of these two words : " What seems is in the mind ; 
 what appears is external. Things appear as they present 
 themselves to the eye ; they seem as they are represented to 
 the mind. Things appear good or bad, as far as we can 
 judge by our senses. Things seem right or wrong as we 
 determine by reflection. Perception and sensation have to 
 do with appearing ; reflection and comparison, with seem- 
 ing. When things are not what they appear, our senses are 
 deceived ; when things are not what they seem, our judg- 
 ment is at fault." 
 
 " No man had ever a greater power over himself, or 
 was less the man he seemed to be, which shortly after ap- 
 peared to everybody, when he cared less to keep on the 
 mask." Clarendon. 
 
 Seldom or ever. This phrase should be "seldom if 
 ever," or " seldom or never" 
 
 Seraphim. This is the plural of seraph. " One of the 
 seraphim." " To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually 
 do cry." See CHERUBIM. 
 
 Set Sit. The former of these two verbs is often incor- 
 rectly used for the latter. To set ; imperfect tense, set ; 
 participles, setting, set. To sit; imperfect tense, sat; parti- 
 ciples, sitting, sat. To set means to put, to place, to plant ;
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 173 
 
 to put in any place, condition, state, or posture. We say, 
 to set about, to set against, to set out, to set going, to 
 set apart, to set aside, to set down (to put in writing). To 
 sit means to rest on the lower part of the body, to repose 
 on a seat, to perch, as a bird, etc. We say, "Sit up," i. e., 
 rise from lying to sitting ; " We will sit up," i. e., will not go 
 to bed ; "Sit down," i. e., place yourself on a seat. We sit a 
 horse and we sit for a portrait. Garments wVwell or other- 
 wise. Congress sits, so does a court. " I have sat up long 
 enough." " I have set it on the table." We j^down figures, 
 but we sit down on the ground. We set a hen, and a hen 
 sits on eggs. We should say, therefore, "as cross as a sit- 
 ting [not, as a setting] hen." 
 
 Settle. This word is often inelegantly, if not incor- 
 rectly, used for fay. We pay our way, pay our fare, pay 
 our hotel-bills, and the like. See, also, LOCATE. 
 
 Shall and Will. The nice distinctions that should be 
 made between these two auxiliaries are, in some parts of 
 the English-speaking world, often disregarded, and that, 
 too, by persons of high culture. The proper use of shall 
 and will can much better be learned from example than 
 from precept. Many persons who use them, and also should 
 and would, with well-nigh unerring correctness, do so un- 
 consciously ; it is simply habit with them, and they, though 
 their culture may be limited, will receive a sort of verbal 
 shock from Biddy's inquiry, " Will I put the kettle on, 
 ma'am 1 " when your Irish or Scotch countess would not be 
 in the least disturbed by it. 
 
 SHALL, in an affirmative sentence, in the first person, 
 and WILL in the second and third persons, merely announce 
 future action. Thus, " I shall go to town to-morrow." 
 " I shall not ; I shall wait for better weather." " We shall 
 be glad to see you." " I shall soon be twenty." "We shaft
 
 174 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 set out early, and shall try to arrive by noon." " You will 
 be pleased." " You will soon be twenty." " You will find 
 him honest." " He will go with us." 
 
 SHALL, in an affirmative sentence, in the second and third 
 persons, announces the speaker's intention to control. Thus', 
 " You shall hear me out." " You shall go, sick or well." 
 " He shall be my heir." " They shall go, whether they 
 want to go or not." 
 
 WILL, in the first person, expresses a promise, announces 
 the speaker's intention to control, proclaims a determination, 
 Thus, " I -will [I promise to] assist you." " I -will [I am 
 determined to] have my right." " We -will [we promise to] 
 come to you in the morning." 
 
 SHALL, in an interrogative sentence, in the first and third 
 persons, constdts the will or judgment of another ; in the 
 second person, it inquires concerning the intention or future 
 action of another. Thus, " Shall I go with you ? " " When 
 shall we see you again ? " " When shall I receive it ? " 
 " When shall I get well ? " " When shall we get there ? " 
 " Shall he come with us?" " Shall you demand indem- 
 nity?" "Shall you go to town to-morrow?" "What 
 shall you do about it ? " 
 
 WILL, in an interrogative sentence, in the second person, 
 asks concerning the wish, and, in the third person, concerning 
 the purpose or future action of- others. Thus, " Will you 
 have an apple?" "Will you go with me to my uncle's?" 
 " Will he be of the party ? " " Will they be willing to re- 
 ceive us ? " " When -will he be here ? " 
 
 Will can not be used interrogatively in the first person 
 singular or plural. We can not say, " Will I go ? " " Will 
 I help you ? " " Will I be late ? " " Will we get there in 
 time ? " " Will we see you again soon ? " 
 
 Official courtesy, in order to avoid the semblance of
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 '75 
 
 compulsion, conveys its commands in the you-will form in- 
 stead of the strictly grammatical you-shall form. It says, 
 for example, " You -will proceed to Key West, where you 
 will find further instructions awaiting you." 
 
 A clever writer on the use of shall and will says that 
 whatever concerns one's beliefs, hopes, fears, likes, or dis- 
 likes, can not be expressed in conjunction with I will. Are 
 there no exceptions to this rule ? If I say, " I think I shall 
 go to Philadelphia to-morrow," I convey the impression that 
 my going depends upon circumstances beyond my control ; 
 but if I say, " I think I will go to Philadelphia to-morrow," 
 I convey the impression that my going depends upon circum- 
 stances within my control that my going or not depends on 
 mere inclination. We certainly must say, " I fear that I shall 
 lose it " ; " I hope that I shall be well " ; " I believe that I 
 shall have the ague " ; " I hope that I shall not be left 
 alone"; "I fear that we shall have bad weather"; "I 
 shall dislike the country " ; " I shall like the performance." 
 The writer referred to asks, " How can one say, ' I will 
 have the headache ' ? " I answer, Very easily, as every 
 young woman knows. Let us see : " Mary, you know you 
 promised John to drive out with him to-morrow ; how shall 
 you get out of it?" "Oh, I will have the headache !" 
 We request that people will do thus or so, and not that 
 they shall. Thus, " It is requested that no one will leave 
 the room." 
 
 Shall is rarely, if ever, used for will ; it is will that is 
 used for shall. Expressions like the following are common : 
 " Where will you be next week ? " "I will be at home." 
 " We wzY/have dinner at six o'clock." " How will you go 
 about it ? " " When will you begin ? " " When will you 
 set out ? " " What will you do with it ? " In all such ex- 
 pressions, when it is a question of mere future action on 
 12
 
 176 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 the part of the person speaking or spoken to, the auxiliary 
 must be shall, and not -will. 
 
 Should and -would follow the regimen of shall and -will. 
 Would is often used for should ; should rarely for would. 
 Correct speakers say, " I should go to town to-morrow if 
 I had a horse." " I should not ; I should wait for better 
 weather." " We should be glad to see you." " We should 
 have started earlier, if the weather had been clear." " I 
 should like to go to town, and would go if I could." " I 
 would assist you if I could." " I should have been ill if I 
 had gone." "I -would I were home again!" "I should 
 go fishing to-day if I were home." " I should so like to go 
 to Europe ! " "I should prefer to see it first." " I should 
 be delighted." " I should be glad to have you sup with 
 me." " I knew that I should be ill." " I feared that I 
 should lose it." " I hoped that I should see him." " I 
 thought I should have the ague." " I hoped that I should 
 not be left alone." " I was afraid that we should have bad 
 weather." " I knew I should dislike the country." " I 
 should not like to do it, and will not [determination] unless 
 compelled to." 
 
 Shimmy. " We derive from the French language our 
 word chemise pronounced shemmeeze. In French, the 
 word denotes a man's shirt, as well as the under garment 
 worn by women. In this country, it is often pronounced 
 by people who should know better shimmy. Rather than 
 call it shimmy, resume the use of the old English words 
 shift and smock. Good usage unqualifiedly condemns 
 gents, pants, kids, gums, and shimmy." "Vulgarisms and 
 Other Errors of Speech." 
 
 Should. See OUGHT. 
 
 Sick HL These words are often used indiscriminately. 
 Sick, however, is the stronger word, and generally the better
 
 THE VERBALIST. 177 
 
 word to use. /// is used in England more than with us : 
 there sick is generally limited to the expressing of nausea ; 
 as, " sick at the stomach." 
 
 Signature, over or under ? A man writes under, not 
 over, a signature. Charles Dickens wrote under the signa- 
 ture of " Boz " ; Mr. Samuel L. Clemens writes under the 
 signature of " Mark Twain." The reason given in Web- 
 ster's Dictionary for preferring the use of under is absurd ; 
 viz., that the paper is under the hand in writing. The 
 expression is elliptical, and has no reference to the position 
 either of the signature or of the paper. " Given under my 
 hand and seal" means " under the guarantee of my signa- 
 ture and my seal." " Under his own signature " or " name " 
 means " under his own character, without disguise." " Un- 
 der the signature of Boz " means " under the disguise of the 
 assumed name Boz." We always write under a certain 
 date, though the date be placed, as it often is, at the bottom 
 of the page. 
 
 Signs. In one of the principal business streets of New 
 York there is a sign which reads, " German Lace Store." 
 Now, whether this is a store that makes a specialty of Ger- 
 man laces, or whether it is a store where all kinds of lace 
 are sold, kept by a German or after the German fashion, is 
 something that the sign doubtless means to tell us, but, 
 owing to the absence of a hyphen (" German-Lace Store," 
 or " German Lace-Store "), does not tell us. Nothing is more 
 common than erroneous punctuation in signs, and gross 
 mistakes by the unlettered in the wording of the simplest 
 printed matter. 
 
 The bad taste, incorrect punctuation, false grammar, 
 and ridiculous nonsense met with on signs and placards, 
 and in advertisements, -are really surprising. An advertise- 
 ment tells us that "a pillow which assists in procuring
 
 1 7 S THE VERBALIST. 
 
 sleep is a benediction " ; a placard, that they have " Char- 
 lotte de Russe" for sale within, which means, if it means 
 anything, that they have for sale somebody or something 
 called Charlotte of Russian ; and, then, on how many signs 
 do we see the possessive case when the plural number is 
 intended ! 
 
 Simile. In rhetoric, a direct and formal comparison is 
 called a simile. It is generally denoted by like, as, or 
 to; as, 
 
 " I have ventured, 
 
 Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, 
 These many summers in a sea of glory." 
 " Thy smile is as the dawn of vernal day." Shakespeare. 
 " As, down in the sunless retreats of the ocean, 
 
 Sweet flow'rets are springing no mortal can see ; 
 So, deep in my bosom, the prayer of devotion, 
 
 Unheard by the world, rises silent to thee." Moore. 
 " 'Tis with our judgments as with our watches ; none 
 
 Go just alike, yet each believes his own." Pope. 
 " Grace abused brings forth the foulest deeds, 
 As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds." Cowper. 
 
 " As no roads are so rough as those that have just been 
 mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those who have 
 just turned saints." " Lacon." 
 Sin. See CRIME. 
 
 Since Ago. Dr. Johnson says of these two adverbs : 
 " Reckoning time toward the present, we use since ; as, 
 ' It is a year since it happened ' : reckoning from the pres- 
 ent, we use ago ; as, ' It is a year ago.' This is not, per- 
 haps, always observed." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's rule will hardly suffice as a sure guide. 
 Since is often used for ago, but ago never for since. Ago is 
 derived from the participle agone, while since comes from a
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 179 
 
 preposition. We say properly, " not long " or " some time 
 ago [agone]." Since requires a verbal clause after it ; as, 
 " Since I saw you " ; " Since he was here." 
 
 Sing. Of the two forms sang and sung for the im- 
 perfect tense of the verb to sing, the former sang is to be 
 preferred. 
 
 Sit. See SET. 
 
 Slang. The slang that is heard among respectable 
 people is made up of genuine words, to which an arbitrary 
 meaning is given. It is always low, generally coarse, and 
 not unfrequently foolish. With the exception of cant, there 
 is nothing that is more to be shunned. We sometimes meet 
 with persons of considerable culture who interlard their 
 talk with slang expressions, but it is safe to assert that they 
 are always persons of coarse natures. 
 
 Smart. See CLEVER. 
 
 Smell of. See TASTE OF. 
 
 So. See As ; SUCH ; THAT. 
 
 So much so. " The shipments by the coast steamers 
 are very large, so much so [large?] as to tax the capacity of 
 the different lines." " Telegram," September 19, 1881. 
 The sentence should be, " The shipments by the coast 
 steamers are very large, so large as to tax," etc. 
 
 Solecism. In rhetoric, a solecism is defined as an of- 
 fense against the rules of grammar by the use of words in a 
 wrong construction ; false syntax. 
 
 " Modern grammarians designate by solecism any word 
 or expression which does not agree with the established 
 usage of writing or speaking. But, as customs change, that 
 which at one time is considered a solecism may at another 
 be regarded as correct language. A solecism, therefore, 
 differs from a barbarism, inasmuch as the latter consists in 
 the use of a word or expression which is altogether con-
 
 180 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 trary to the spirit of the language, and can, properly 
 speaking, never become established as correct language." 
 " Penny Cyclopaedia." See, also, BARBARISM 
 
 Some. This word is not unfrequently misused for some- 
 what ; thus, " She is some better to-day." It is likewise 
 often misused for about ; thus, " I think it is some ten miles 
 from here " : read, " about ten miles from here." 
 
 Specialty. This form has within a recent period been 
 generally substituted for speciality. There is no apparent 
 reason, however, why the i should be dropped, since it is 
 required by the etymology of the word, and is retained in 
 nearly all other words of the same formation. 
 
 Specious Fallacy. A fallacy is a sophism, a logical 
 artifice, a deceitful or false appearance ; while specious 
 means having the appearance of truth, plausible. Hence 
 we see that the very essence of a fallacy is its speciousness. 
 We may very properly say that a fallacy is more or less 
 specious, but we can not properly say that a fallacy is spe- 
 cious, since without speciousness we can have no fallacies. 
 
 Splendid. This poor word is used by the gentler sex 
 to qualify well-nigh everything that has their approval, from 
 a sugar-plum to the national capitol. In fact, splendid and 
 awful seem to be about the only adjectives some of our 
 superlative young women have in their vocabularies. 
 
 Standpoint. This is a word to which many students 
 of English seriously object, and among them are the editors 
 of some of our daily papers, who do not allow it to appear 
 in their columns. The phrase to which no one objects 
 is, paint of view. 
 
 State. This word, which properly means to make 
 known specifically, to explain particularly, is often misused 
 for say. When say says all one wants to say, why use a 
 more pretentious word ?
 
 THE VERBALIST. 18 1 
 
 Stop. "Where are you stopping?" "At the Metro- 
 politan." The proper word to use here is staying. To stop 
 means to cease to go forward, to leave off ; and to stay 
 means to abide, to tarry, to dwell, to sojourn. We stay, 
 not stop, at home, at a hotel, or with a friend, as the case 
 may be. 
 
 Storm. Many persons indulge in a careless use of this 
 word, using it when they mean to say simply that it rains 
 or snows. To a storm a violent commotion of the atmos- 
 phere is indispensable. A very high wind constitutes a 
 storm, though it be dry. 
 
 Straightway. Here is a good Anglo-Saxon word of 
 two syllables whose place, without any good reason, is 
 being usurped by the Latin word immediately, of Jive syl- 
 lables. 
 
 Street. We live in, hot on meet our acquaintances in, 
 not on things occur in, not on houses are built in, not 
 on, the street, and so forth. 
 
 Style. This is a term that is used to characterize the 
 peculiarities that distinguish a writer or a composition. 
 Correctness and clearness properly belong to the domain of 
 diction,' simplicity, conciseness, gravity, elegance, diffuse- 
 ness, floridity, force, feebleness, coarseness, etc., belong to 
 the domain of style. 
 
 Subjunctive Mood. This mood is unpopular with not 
 a few now-a-day grammarians. One says that it is rapidly 
 falling into disuse ; that, in fact, there is good reason to 
 suppose it will soon become obsolete. Another says that 
 it would, perhaps, be better to abolish it entirely, as its use 
 is a continual source of dispute among grammarians and of 
 perplexity to schools. Another says that it is a universal 
 stumbling-block ; that nobody seems to understand it, al- 
 though almost everybody attempts to use it.
 
 l3z THE VERBALIST. 
 
 That the subjunctive mood is much less used now than 
 it was a hundred years ago is certain, but that it is obso- 
 lescent is very far from certain. It would not be easy, I 
 think, to find a single contemporary writer who does not 
 use it. That it is not always easy to determine what form 
 of it we should employ is very true ; but if we are justified in 
 abolishing it altogether, as Mr. Chandler suggests, because 
 its correct use is not always easy, then we are also justified 
 in abolishing the use of shall and will, and of the preposi- 
 tions, for surely their right use is likewise at times most 
 puzzling. MeanWhile, most persons will think it well to 
 learn to use the subjunctive mood properly. With that 
 object in view, one can not, perhaps, do better than to at- 
 tend to what Dr. Alexander Bain, Professor of Logic in 
 the University of Aberdeen, says upon the subject. In 
 Professor Bain's " Higher English Grammar " we find : 
 
 " In subordinate clauses. In a clause expressing a con- 
 dition, and introduced by a conjunction of condition, the 
 verb is sometimes, but not always, in the subjunctive mood : 
 ' If I be able,' 'if I -were strong enough,' 'if thou should 
 come.' 
 
 " The subjunctive inflexions have been wholly lost. 
 The sense that something is wanting appears to have led 
 many writers to use indicative forms where the subjunctive 
 might be expected. The tendency appears strongest in the 
 case of ' wert,' which is now used as indicative (for ' wast ') 
 only in poetical or elevated language. 
 
 " The following is the rule given for the use of the sub- 
 junctive mood : 
 
 " When in a conditional clause it is intended to express 
 doubt or denial, use the subjunctive mood.* ' If I were 
 sure of what you tell me, I would go.' 
 
 * " Dr. Angus on the ' English Tongue,' art. 527.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 183 
 
 " When the conditional clause is affirmative and certain, 
 the verb is indicative : ' If that is the case ' (as you now tell 
 me, and as I believe), ' I can understand you.' This is 
 equivalent to a clause of assumption, or supposition : ' That 
 being the case,' ' inasmuch as that is the case,' etc. 
 
 " As futurity is by its nature uncertain, the subjunctive 
 is extensively used for future conditionality : ' If it rain, we 
 shall not be able to go ' ; ' if I be well ' ; ' if he come short- 
 ly '; 'if thou return at all in peace ' ; ' though he slay me, 
 yet will I trust in him.' These events are all in the un- 
 certain future, and are put in the subjunctive.* 
 
 "A future result or consequence is expressed by the 
 subjunctive in such instances as these : ' I will wait till he 
 return' ; ' no fear lest dinner cool' ; ' thou shalt stone him 
 with stones, that he die ' ; ' take heed lest at any time your 
 hearts be overcharged with surfeiting.' 
 
 " Uncertainty as to a past event may arise from our 
 own ignorance, in which case the subjunctive is properly 
 employed, and serves the useful purpose of distinguishing 
 
 . * " In the following passages, the indicative mood would be more suit- 
 able than the subjunctive : ' If thou be the Son of God, command 
 that these stones be made bread ' ; ' if thou be the Son of God, come 
 down from the cross.' For, although the address was not sincere on the 
 part of the speakers, they really meant to make the supposition or to 
 grant that he was the Son of God ; ' seeing that thou art the Son of 
 God." Likewise in the following: 'Now if Christ be preached, that 
 He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no res- 
 urrection from the dead ? ' The meaning is, ' Seeing now that Christ 
 is preached.' In the continuation, the conditional clauses are of a dif- 
 ferent character, and ' be ' is appropriate : ' But if there be no resur- 
 rection from the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not 
 risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.' Again, 
 ' If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember^/,' etc. Con- 
 sistency and correctness require ' remember.' " Harrison on the " Eng- 
 lish Language," p. 287.
 
 184 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 our ignorance from our knowledge. ' If any of my readers 
 has looked with so little attention upon the world around 
 him ' ; this would mean ' as I know that they have.' The 
 meaning intended is probably ' as I do not know whether 
 they have or not," and therefore the subjunctive ' have ' is 
 preferable. ' If ignorance is blissj' which I (ironically) 
 admit. Had Gray been speaking seriously, he would have 
 said, ' if ignorance be bliss,' he himself dissenting from the 
 proposition. 
 
 " A wish contrary to the fact takes the subjunctive : ' I 
 wish he -were here ' (which he is not). 
 
 " An intention not yet carried out is also subjunctive : 
 ' The sentence is that you be imprisoned,' 
 
 "The only correct form of the future subjunctive is 
 ' if I should.' We may say, ' I do not know whether or not 
 I shall come ' ; but ' if I shall come,' expressing a condition, 
 is not an English construction. ' If he will ' has a real 
 meaning, as being the present subjunctive of the verb 
 1 will ' : ' if he be willing,' ' if he have the will.' It is in 
 accordance with good usage to express a future subjunctive 
 meaning by a present tense ; but in that case the form must 
 be strictly subjunctive, and not indicative. ' If any mem- 
 ber absents himself, he shall forfeit a penny for the use of 
 the club ' ; this ought to be either ' absent,' or ' should 
 absent.' ' If thou neglectest or doest unwillingly what I com- 
 mand thee, I will rack thee with old cramps ' ; better, ' if 
 thou neglect or do unwillingly,' or ' if thou should neglect.* 
 The indicative would be justified by the speaker's belief 
 that the supposition is sure to turn out to be the fact. 
 
 " The past subjunctive may imply denial ; as, ' if the 
 book were in the library (as it is not), it should be at your 
 service.' 
 
 "' If the book be in the library,' means, 'I do not know
 
 THE VERBALIST. 185 
 
 whether it be or not.' We have thus the power of discrimi- 
 nating three different suppositions. ' If the book is in the 
 library ' (as I know it is) ; ' if it be ' (I am uncertain) ; ' if it 
 were' (as I know it is not). So, ' if it rains,' ' if it rain,' ' if 
 it rained.' ' Nay, and the villains march wide between the 
 legs, as if they had gyves on,' implying that they had not. , 
 
 " The same power of the past tense is exemplified in 
 'if I could, I would,' which means, ' I can not' ; whereas, 
 ' if I can, I will,' means ' I do not know.' 
 
 "The past subjunctive may be expressed by an inver- 
 sion : ' Had I the power,' ' -were I as I have been.' 
 
 " In Principal Clauses. The principal clause in a con- 
 ditional statement also takes the subjunctive form when it 
 refers to what is future and contingent, and when it refers 
 to what is past and uncertain, or denied. ' If he should 
 try, he would succeed ' ; ' if I had seen him, I should have 
 asked him.' 
 
 " The usual forms of the subjunctive in the principal 
 clause are ' would,' ' should,' ' would have,' ' should have ' ; 
 and it is to be noted that in this application the second per- 
 sons take the inflexional ending of the indicative : ' shouldst,' 
 1 wouldst.' 
 
 " ' If 'twere done when 'tis done, then 'twere (would be) well 
 It were (should be) done quickly.' 
 
 " The English idiom appears sometimes to permit the 
 
 use of an indicative where we should expect a subjunctive 
 
 form. ' Many acts, that had been otherwise blamable, 
 
 were employed ' ; ' I had fainted, unless I had believed,' etc. 
 
 41 ' Which else lie furled and shrouded in the soul.' 
 
 44 In ' else ' there is implied a conditional clause that 
 would suit ' lie ' ; or the present may be regarded as a 
 more vivid form of expression. ' Had ' may be indicative ; 
 just as we sometimes find pluperfect indicative for pluper-
 
 186 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 feet subjunctive in the same circumstances in Latin. We 
 may refer it to the general tendency, as already seen in the 
 uses of 'could,' 'would,' 'should,' etc., to express con- 
 ditionality by a past tense ; or the indicative may be used 
 as a more direct and vivid mode. ' Had ' may be subjunc- 
 tive ; ' I had fainted ' is, in construction, analogous to ' I 
 should have fainted ' ; the word for futurity, ' shall,' not 
 being necessary to the sense, is withdrawn, and its past 
 inflexion transferred to ' have.' Compare Germ, wurde 
 haben and hdtte" 
 
 In addition to the foregoing, we find in Professor Bain's 
 "Composition Grammar" the following: 
 
 "The case most suited to the subjunctive is contingent 
 futurity ', or the expression of an event unknown absolutely, 
 as being still in the future : ' If to-morrow be fine, I will 
 walk with you.' 
 
 " ' Unless I were prepared,' insinuates pretty strongly 
 that I am or am not prepared, according to the manner of 
 the principal clause. 
 
 41 ' What's a tall man unless \i&Jight? ' 
 
 " ' The sword hath ended him : so shall it thee, 
 
 Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.' 
 " 'Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? 
 Who would not weep, if Atticus were he ? ' 
 
 '"I am to second Ion if he fail'; the failing is left 
 quite doubtful. ' I should very imperfectly execute the 
 task which I have undertaken if I -were merely to treat 
 of battles and sieges.' Macaulay thus implies that the 
 scope of his work is to be wider than mere battles and 
 sieges. 
 
 " ' The subjunctive appears in some other constructions. 
 ' I hope to see the exhibition before it close ' ; ' wait till he 
 return ' ; ' thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he
 
 THE VERBALIST. 187 
 
 tome'' ; ' take heed lest passion sway thy judgment ' ; ' speak 
 to me, though it be in wrath' ; 'if he smite him with an in- 
 strument of iron so that he die, he is a murderer ' ; ' beware 
 this night that thou cross not my footsteps ' (Shelley). 
 
 " Again. ' Whatever this be ' ; ' whoever he be ' ; ' hovv- 
 e'er it be ' (Tennyson) ; and such like. 
 
 " ' And as long, O God, as she 
 Have a grain of love for me, 
 So long, no doubt, no doubt, 
 Shall I nurse in my dark heart, 
 However weary, a spark of will 
 Not to be trampled out.' 
 
 " The Future Subjunctive is given in our scheme of the 
 verb as ' should ' in all persons : ' If I should, if thou 
 should, if he should.' In old English, we have ' thou 
 shouldst ' : ' if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities." 
 
 " An inverted conditional form has taken deep root in 
 our language, and may be regarded as an elegant and for- 
 cible variety. While dispensing with the conjunction, it 
 does not cause ambiguity ; nevertheless, conditionality is 
 well marked. 
 
 " ' //you should abandon your Penelope and your home 
 
 for Calypso, ' : ' should you abandon .' 
 
 " ' Go not my horse the better, 
 I must become a borrower of the night 
 For a dark hour or twain.' 
 " ' Here had we now our country's honor roofd 
 
 Were the graced person of our Banquo present." 
 " ' Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, 
 
 Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, 
 Be thy intents wicked or charitable, 
 Thou com'st in such a questionable shape 
 That I will speak to thee.'
 
 1 88 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " ' Come one, come all, this rock shall fly 
 
 From its firm base as soon as I.' Scott, 
 " The following examples are given by Matzner : 
 " ' Varney's communications, be they what they might, 
 r were operating in his favor.' Scott. 
 
 " ' Governing persons, were they never so insignificant 
 intrinsically, have for most part plenty of Memoir-writers.' 
 Carlyle. 
 
 " ' Even were I disposed, I could not gratify the read- 
 er.' Warren. 
 
 " ' Bring them back to me, cost what it may.' Cole- 
 ridge, ' Wallen stein.' 
 
 " ' And will you, nill you, I will marry you.' ' Tam- 
 ing of the Shrew.' 
 
 " Were is used in the principal clause for ' should be ' 
 or ' would be.' * 
 
 " ' I were (= should be) a fool, not less than if a panther 
 Were panic-stricken by the antelope's eye, 
 If she escape me.' Shelley. 
 41 ' Were you but riding forth to air yourself, 
 
 Such parting were too petty.' 
 
 " ' He were (= would be) no lion, were not Roman* 
 hinds.' 
 
 " ' Should he be roused cut of his sleep to-night, . . . 
 
 It were not well ; indeed it were not well.' Shelley. 
 "Had is sometimes used in the principal clause for 
 ' should have ' or ' would have.' f 
 
 * " So, in German, -ware for ivilrde sein. ' Halt ' ich Schwingen, 
 halt ' ich Fliigel, nach den Hiigeln zog'' ich hin,' for ' wtirde ich 
 zieken.' " 
 
 t " So, in German, hdtte occurs for wttrde haben, ' Ware er da 
 gewesen, so hcitten wir ihn gesehen,' for 'so warden wir ihn gesehen 
 baben.' Hatten is still conditional, not indicative. In Latin, the
 
 THE VERBALIST. 189 
 
 " ' Had I known this before we set out, I think I had 
 (= would have) remained at home.' Scott. 
 
 " ' Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume, 
 Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine.' 
 
 "'If he 
 
 Had killed me, he had done a kinder deed.' 
 " ' For once he had been ta'en or slain, 
 
 An it had not been his ministry.' Scott. 
 " ' If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin.' * 
 " ' Had better, rather, best, as lief, as well, etc.,' is a 
 form that is explained under this heading. ' Had ' stands 
 for ' would have.' The exploded notion that ' had ' is a 
 corrupted ' would ' must be guarded against. 
 
 " ' I had as lief not be.' That is ' I -would as lief have 
 not (to) be ' = ' I would as willingly (or as soon) have non- 
 existence.' 
 
 "' Had you rather Csesar were living ?' ' Would 
 
 you rather have (u-ould you prefer that) Ceesar were living ? ' 
 " 'He had better reconsider the matter' is 'he would 
 better have (to) reconsider the matter.' 
 
 " ' I had rather be a kitten and cry mew 
 
 Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers ; 
 I had rather hear a brazen canstick turned.' 
 " Let us compare this form with another that appears 
 side by side with it in early writers. (Cp. Lat. ' habeo ' 
 and ' mihi est.') 
 
 " The construction of ' had ' is thus illustrated in Chau- 
 cer, as in Nonne Prestes Tale, 300 : 
 
 pluperfect indicative is occasionally used ; which is explained as a 
 more vivid form." 
 
 * " In principal clauses the inflection of the second person is always 
 retained : ' thou had.rf,' ' thou would.**, should.?/,' etc. In the ex- 
 ample, the subordinate clause, although subjunctive, shows, ' hadrf.' 
 And this usage is exceedingly common."
 
 190 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " ' By God, I hadde levere than my scherte, 
 That ye hadde rad his legend, as I have.' 
 
 " Compare now : 
 
 " ' Ah me were levere with lawe loose my lyf 
 
 Then so to fote hem falle.' Wright, ' Polit. S.' 
 
 " Here ' were ' is unquestionably for ' would be ' ; and 
 the whole expression might be given by 'had,' thus : 'Ah, 
 
 / hadde levere ,' ' (to) loose ' and ' (to) falle' changing 
 
 from subjects of ' were ' to objects of 'hadde.' 
 
 " So, in the Chaucer example above, if we substitute 
 'be ' for 'have,' we shall get the same meaning, thus : ' By 
 
 God, me were levere .' The interchange helps us to 
 
 see more clearly that ' hadde ' is to be explained as sub- 
 junctive for 'would have.'" See INDICATIVE and SUB- 
 JUNCTIVE. 
 
 Such. " I have never before seen stick a large ox." 
 By a little transposing of the words of this sentence, we 
 have, " I have never before seen an ox such large," which 
 makes it quite clear that we should say so large an ox and 
 not such a large ox. As proof that this error in the use of 
 such is common, we find in Mr. George Washington Moon's 
 " Dean's English and Bad English," the sentence, " With 
 all due deference to such a high authority on such a very 
 important matter." With a little transposing, this sentence 
 is made to read, "With all due deference to an authority 
 such high on a matter such very important." It is clear that 
 the sentence should read, " With all due deference to so high 
 an authority on so very important a matter." The phrases, 
 such a handsome, such a lovely, such a long, such narrow, 
 etc., are incorrect, and should be so handsome, so lovely, so 
 long, and so on. 
 
 Summon. This verb comes in for its full share of maul- 
 ing. We often hear such expressions as " I will summons
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 191 
 
 him," instead of summon him ; and " He was summonsed" 
 instead of summoned. 
 
 Superfluous Words. " Whenever I try to write well, I 
 always find I can do it." " I shall have finished by the latter 
 end of the week." " Iron sinks down in water." " He com- 
 bined together all the facts." " My brother called on me, 
 and we both took a walk." " I can do it equally as well as 
 he." "We could not forbear from doing it." "Before I 
 go, I must first be paid." " We were compelled to return 
 back" " We forced them to retreat back fully a mile." 
 " His conduct was approved of by everybody." " They 
 conversed together for a long time." " The balloon rose up 
 very rapidly." " Give me another one" " Come home as 
 soon as ever you can." " Who finds him in money ? " " He 
 came in last of all." " He has got all he can carry." " What 
 have you got?" " No matter what I have got" " I have 
 got the headache." " Have you got any brothers ? " " No, 
 but I have got a sister." All the words in italics are super- 
 fluous. 
 
 Superior. This word is not unfrequently used for able, 
 excellent, gifted ; as, " She is a superior woman," meaning 
 an excellent woman ; " He is a superior man," meaning an 
 able man. The expression an infet ior man is not less ob- 
 jectionable. 
 
 Supposititious. This word is properly used in the sense 
 of put by a trick into the place or character belonging to 
 another, spurious, counterfeit, not genuine ; and improp- 
 erly in the sense of conjectural, hypothetical, imaginary, 
 presumptive ; as, " This is a supposititious case," meaning 
 an imaginary or presumptive case. " The English critic de- 
 rived his materials from a stray copy of some supposititious 
 indexes devised by one of the ' Post ' reporters." " Nation." 
 Here is a correct use of the word. 
 13
 
 192 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Swosh. There is a kind of ill-balanced brain in which 
 the reflective and the imaginative very much outweight the 
 perceptive. Men to whom this kind of an organization has 
 been given generally have active minds, but their minds 
 never present anything clearly. To their mental vision all 
 is ill-defined, chaotic. They see everything in a haze. 
 Whether such men talk or write, they are verbose, illogical, 
 intangible, will-o'-the-wispish. Their thoughts are phan- 
 tomlike ; like shadows, they continually escape their grasp. 
 In their talk they will, after long dissertations, tell you that 
 they have not said just what they would like to say ; there is 
 always a subtle, lurking something still unexpressed, which 
 something is the real essence of the matter, and which your 
 penetration is expected to divine. In their writings they 
 are eccentric, vague, labyrinthine, pretentious, transcenden- 
 tal,* and frequently ungrammatical. These men, if write 
 they must, should confine themselves to the descriptive ; 
 for when they enter the essayist's domain, which they are 
 very prone to do, they write what I will venture to call 
 swosh. 
 
 We find examples in plenty of this kind of writing in 
 the essays of Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Indeed, the im- 
 partial critic who will take the trouble to examine any of 
 Mr. Emerson's essays at all carefully, is quite sure to come 
 to the conclusion that Mr. Emerson has seen everything he 
 has ever made the subject of his essays very much as Lon- 
 don is seen from the top of Saint Paul's in a fog. 
 
 * To those who are not quite clear as to what transcendentalism is, 
 the following lucid definition will be v/elcome : " It is the spiritual cog- 
 noscence of psychological irrefragability connected with concutient 
 ademption of incolumnient spirituality and etherealized contention of 
 subsultory concretion." Translated by a New York lawyer, it stands 
 thus : " Transcendentalism is two holes in a sand-bank : a storm 
 washes away the sand-bank without disturbing the holes."
 
 THE VERBALIST. 193 
 
 Mr. Emerson's definition of Nature runs thus : " Philo- 
 sophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature 
 and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is sepa- 
 rate from us, all which philosophy distinguishes from the 
 Not Me that is, both Nature and Art, and all other men, 
 and my own body must be ranked under this name ' NA- 
 TURE.' In enumerating the values of Nature and casting 
 up their sum, I shall use the word in both senses in its 
 common and in its philosophical import. In inquiries so 
 general as our present one, the inaccuracy is not material ; 
 no confusion of thought will occur. Nature, in the com- 
 mon sense, refers to essences unchanged by man : space, 
 the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture 
 of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a 
 picture, a statue. But his operations, taken together, are 
 so insignificant a little chipping, baking, patching, and 
 washing that in an impression so grand as that of the 
 world on the human mind they do not vary the result." 
 
 In "Letters and Social Aims" Mr. Emerson writes: 
 " Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language 
 perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. He 
 who would convince the worthy Mr. Dunderhead of any 
 truth which Dunderhead does not see, must be a master of 
 his art. Declamation is common ; but such possession of 
 thought as is here required, such practical chemistry as the 
 conversion of a truth written in God's language into a truth 
 in Dunderhead's language, is one of the most beautiful and 
 cogent weapons that is forged in the shop of the Divine 
 Artificer." 
 
 The first paragraph of Mr. Emerson's " Essay on Art " 
 reads : " All departments of life at the present day 
 Trade, Politics, Letters, Science, or Religion seem to feel, 
 and to labor to express, the identity of their law. They arc
 
 194 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 rays of one sun ; they translate each into a new language 
 the sense of the other. They are sublime when seen as 
 emanations of a Necessity contradistinguished from the 
 vulgar Fate by being instant and alive, and dissolving man, 
 as well as his works, in its flowing beneficence. This in- 
 fluence is conspicuously visible in the principles and his- 
 tory of Art." 
 
 Another paragraph from Mr. Emerson's " Essay on 
 Eloquence " : " The orator, as we have seen, must be a 
 substantial personality. Then, first, he must have power 
 of statement must have the fact, and know how to tell 
 it. In a knot of men conversing on any subject, the per- 
 son who knows most about it will have the ear of the 
 company, if he wishes it, and lead the conversation, no 
 matter what genius or distinction other men there present 
 may have ; and, in any public assembly, him who has the 
 facts, and can and will state them, people will listen to, 
 though he is otherwise ignorant, though he is hoarse and 
 ungrateful, though he stutters and screams." 
 
 Mr. Emerson, in his " Essay on Prudence," writes : 
 " There are all degrees of proficiency in knowledge of the 
 world. It is sufficient to our present purpose to indicate 
 three. One class live to the utility of the symbol, es- 
 teeming health and wealth a final good. Another class 
 live above this mark to the beauty of the symbol, as the 
 poet and artist, and the naturalist and man of science. A 
 third class live above the beauty of the symbol to the 
 beauty of the thing signified ; these are wise men. The 
 first class have common sense ; the second, taste ; and the 
 third, spiritual perception. Once in a long time a man 
 traverses the whole scale, and sees and enjoys the sym- 
 bol solidly ; then, also, has a clear eye for its beauty ; and, 
 lastly, whilst he pitches his tent on this sacred volcanic isle
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 '95 
 
 of nature, does not offer to build houses and barns thereon, 
 reverencing the splendor of God which he sees bursting 
 through each chink and cranny." 
 
 Those who are wont to accept others at their self- 
 assessment and to see things through other people's eyes 
 and there are many such are in danger of thinking 
 this kind of writing very fine, when in fact it is not only the 
 veriest swash, but that kind of swosh that excites at least 
 an occasional doubt with regard to the writer's sanity. 
 We can make no greater mistake than to suppose that the 
 reason we do not understand these rhetorical contortionists 
 is because they are so subtle and profound. We under- 
 stand them quite as well as they understand themselves. 
 At their very best, they are but incoherent diluters of other 
 men's ideas. They have but one thing to recommend them 
 honesty. They believe in themselves. 
 
 " Whatever is dark is deep. Stir a puddle, and it is 
 deeper than a well." Swift. 
 
 Synecdoche. The using of the name of a part for 
 that of the whole, the name of the whole for that of a part, 
 or the using of a definite number for an indefinite, is called, 
 in rhetoric, synecdoche. " The bay was covered with sails " ; 
 i. e , with ships. " The man was old, careworn, and gray " ; 
 i. e , literally, his hair, not the man, was gray. "Nine 
 tenths of every man's happiness depends on the reception 
 he meets with in the world." " He had seen seventy win- 
 ters.'' " Thus spoke the tempter " : here the part of the 
 character is named that suits the occasion. 
 
 " His roof was at the service of the outcast ; the un- 
 fortunate ever found a welcome at his threshold." 
 
 Take. I copy from the " London Queen " : " The 
 verb to take is open to being considered a vulgar verb when 
 used in reference to dinner, tea, or to refreshments of any
 
 1 9 6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 kind. 'Will you take' is not considered comme il faut ; 
 the verb in favor for the offering of civilities being to have," 
 According to " The Queen," then, we must say, "Will you 
 have some dinner, tea, coffee, wine, fish, beef, salad," etc. 
 
 Taste of. The redundant of, often used, in this coun- 
 try, in connection with the transitive verbs to taste and to 
 smell, is a Yankeeism. We taste or smell a thing, not taste 
 of nor smell of a thing. The neuter verbs to taste and to 
 smell are often followed by of. " If butter tastes of brass." 
 " For age but tastes of pleasures." 
 
 " You shall stifle in your own report, 
 And smell of calumny." Shakespeare. 
 
 Tautology. Among the things to be avoided in writ- 
 ing is tautology, which is the repeating of the same thought, 
 whether in the same or in different words. 
 
 Tautophony. " A regard for harmony requires us, in 
 the progress of a sentence, to avoid repeating a sound by 
 employing the same word more than once, or using, in 
 contiguous words, similar combinations of letters. This 
 fault is known as tautology'' Dr. G. P. Quackenbos, " Ad- 
 vanced Course of Composition and Rhetoric," p. 300. Dr. 
 Quackenbos is in error. The repetition of the same sense 
 is tautology, and the repetition of the same sound, or, as 
 Dr. Quackenbos has it, " the repeating of a sound by em- 
 ploying the same word more than once, or by using in 
 contiguous words similar combinations of letters," is tau- 
 tophony. 
 
 Teach. To impart knowledge, to inform, to instruct ; 
 as, " Teach me how to do it " ; * Teach me to swim " ; "He 
 taught me to write." The uncultured often misuse learn 
 for teach. See LEARN. 
 
 Tense. The errors made in the use of the tenses are 
 manifold. The one most frequently made by persons of
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 197 
 
 culture the one that everybody makes would, perhaps, be 
 nearer the fact is that of using the imperfect instead of 
 the perfect tense ; thus, " I never saw it played but once": 
 say, have seen. " He was the largest man I ever saw ' : say, 
 have seen. " I never in my life had such trouble " : say, 
 have had. Another frequent error, the making of which 
 is not confined to the unschooled, is that of using two 
 verbs in a past tense when only one should be in that time ; 
 thus, " I intended to have gone " : say, to go. " It was my 
 intention to have come": say, to come. "I expected to 
 have found you here " : say, to find. ' ' I was very desirous 
 to have gone " : say, to go. '' He was better than I expected 
 to have found him " : say, to find. 
 
 Among other common errors are the following : " I seen 
 him when he done it " : say, " I saw him when he did it." 
 " I should have went home " : szy,gom. " If he had -went " : 
 say, gone. " I wish you had went " : say, gone. " He has 
 went out " : say, gone. " I come to town this morning " : 
 say, came. " He come to me for advice " : say, came. " It 
 begun veiy late " : say, began. "It had already began " : 
 say, begun. " The following toasts were drank " : say, drunk. 
 ' His text was that God was love" : say, is love. Another 
 error is made in such sentences as these: " If I had have 
 known": say, had known. "If he had have come as he 
 promised " : say, had come. " If you had have told me " : 
 say, had told. 
 
 Testimony. See EVIDENCE. 
 
 Than. Than and as implying comparison have the 
 same case after as before them. " He owes more than 
 me " : read, than / i. e., more than / owe. " John is not 
 so old as her" : read, as she i. e., as she is. We should 
 say, then, " He is stronger than she" " She is older than 
 he" " You are richer than /," etc. But it does not always
 
 igS THE VERBALIST. 
 
 happen that the nominative case comes after than or as. 
 " I love you more than him," " I give you more than 
 Aim," " I love you as well as him " ; that is to say, " I love 
 you more than / love him," " I give you more than I give 
 him" " I love you as well as / love him" Take away him 
 and put he in all these cases, and the grammar is just as 
 good, but the meaning is quite different. " I love you as 
 well as him" means that I love you as well as I love him ; 
 but, " I love you as well as he" means that I love you as 
 well as he loves you. 
 
 Than whom. Cobbett, in his " Grammar of the Eng- 
 lish Language," says: "There is an erroneous way of em- 
 ploying -whom, which I must point out to your particular 
 attention, because it is so often seen in very good writers, 
 and because it is very deceiving. ' The Duke of Argyll, 
 than whom no man was more hearty in the cause.' ' Crom- 
 well, than -whom no man was better skilled in artifice.' A 
 hundred such phrases might be collected from Hume, 
 Blackstone, and even from Drs. Blair and Johnson. Yet 
 they are bad grammar. In all such cases, who should be 
 made use of : for it is nominative and not objective. ' No 
 man was more hearty in the cause than he was ' ; ' No man 
 was better skilled in artifice than he was.' * It is a very 
 common Parliament-house phrase, and therefore presumably 
 corrupt ; but it is a Dr. Johnson phrase, too : ' Pope, than 
 whom few men had more vanity.' The Doctor did not say, 
 ' Myself, than -whom few men have been found more base, 
 having, in my dictionary, described a pensioner as a slave 
 of state, and having afterward myself become a pen- 
 sioner.' 
 
 " I differ in this matter from Bishop Lowth, who says 
 
 * " Cromwell than he no man was more skilled in artifice ; op 
 Cromwell no man was mere skilled in artifice than he (was)."
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 199 
 
 that ' The relative who, having reference to no verb or 
 preposition understood, but only to its antecedent, when it 
 follows than, is always in the objective case ; even though 
 the pronoun, if substituted in its place, would be in the 
 nominative.' And then he gives an instance from Milton. 
 ' Beelzebub, than whom, Satan except, none higher sat.' It 
 is curious enough that this sentence of the Bishop is. itself, 
 ungrammatical ! Our poor unfortunate it is so placed a 
 to make it a matter of doubt whether the Bishop meant it 
 to relate to who or to its antecedent. However, we know 
 its meaning ; but, though he says that who, when it follows 
 than, is always in the objective case, he gives us no reason 
 for this departure from a clear general principle ; unless 
 we are to regard as a reason the example of Milton, who 
 has committed many hundreds, if not thousands, of gram- 
 matical errors, many of which the Bishop himself has 
 pointed out. There is a sort of side-wind attempt at 
 reason in the words, ' having reference to no verb or prep- 
 osition understood.' I do not see the reason, even if this 
 could be ; but it appears to me impossible that a noun or 
 pronoun can exist in a grammatical state without having 
 reference to some verb or preposition, either expressed or 
 understood. What is meant by Milton ? ' Than Beelze- 
 bub, none sat higher, except Satan.' And when, in order 
 to avoid the repetition of the word Beelzebub, the relative 
 becomes necessary, the full construction must be, ' no devil 
 sat higher than who sat, except Satan ' ; and not, ' no devil 
 sat higher than whom sat.' * The supposition that there 
 can be a noun or pronoun which has reference to no verb 
 and no preposition, is certainly a mistake." 
 
 Of this, Dr. Fitzedward Hall remarks, in his " Recent 
 Exemplifications of False Philology " : " That any one 
 
 * " No devil sat higher than he sat, except Satan."
 
 zoo THE VERBALIST. 
 
 but Cobbett would abide this as English is highly im- 
 probable ; and how the expression a quite classical one 
 which he discards can be justified grammatically, except by 
 calling its than a preposition, others may resolve at their 
 leisure and pleasure." 
 
 Thanks. There are many persons who think, it in 
 questionable taste to use thanks for thank you. 
 
 That. The best writers often appear to grope after a 
 separate employment for the several relatives. 
 
 " ' THAT ' is the proper restrictive, explicative, limiting, 
 or defining relative. 
 
 ' ' That,' the neuter of the definite article, was early in 
 use as a neuter relative. All the other oldest relatives 
 gradually dropt away, and ' that ' came to be applied also 
 to plural antecedents, and to masculines and feminines. 
 When ' as,' ' which,' and ' who ' came forward to share the 
 work of ' that,' there seems to have arisen not a little uncer- 
 tainty about the relatives, and we find curious double forms : 
 'whom that,' 'which that," 'which as,' etc. Gower has, 
 'Venus -whose priest that I am'; Chaucer writes ' This 
 Abbot which that was an holy man,' ' his love the which that 
 he oweth.' By the Elizabethan period, these double forms 
 have disappeared, and all the relatives are used singly with- 
 out hesitation. From then till now, ' that ' has been strug- 
 gling with ' who ' and ' which ' to regain superior favor, 
 with varying success. ' Who ' is used for persons, ' which ' 
 for things, in both numbers ; so is ' that ' ; and the only 
 opportunity of a special application of ' that ' lies in the 
 important distinction between coordination and restriction. 
 Now, as ' who ' and ' which ' are most commonly preferred 
 for coordination, it would be a clear gain to confine them 
 to this sense, and to reserve ' that ' for the restrictive appli- 
 cation alone. This arrangement, then, would fall in with
 
 THE VERBALIST. 2 oi 
 
 the most general use of ' thai,' especially beyond the limits of 
 formal composition. 
 
 " The use of ' that ' solely as restrictive, with ' who ' and 
 * which ' solely as coordinating, also avoids ambiguities that 
 often attend the indiscriminate use of ' who ' and ' which ' 
 for coordinate and for restrictive clauses. Thus, when we 
 say, ' his conduct surprised his English friends, -who had not 
 known him long,' we may mean either that his English 
 friends generally were surprised (the relative being, in that 
 case, coordinating), or that only a portion of them namely, 
 the particular portion that had not known him long were 
 surprised. In this last case the relative is meant to define 
 or explain the antecedent, and the doubt would be removed 
 by writing thus : ' his English friends that had not known 
 him long.' So in the following sentence there is a similar 
 ambiguity in the use of ' which ' : ' the next winter which 
 you will spend in town will give you opportunities of mak- 
 ing a more prudent choice.' This may mean, either ' you 
 will spend next winter in town ' (' which ' being coordinat- 
 ing), or ' the next of the winters when you are to live in 
 town," let that come when it may. In the former case, 
 ' which ' is the proper relative ; in the latter case, the mean- 
 ing is restrictive or denning, and would be best brought out 
 by ' that ' : ' the next winter that you will spend in town.' 
 
 "A further consideration in favor of employing ' that* 
 for explicative clauses is the unpleasant effect arising from 
 the too frequent repetition of ' who ' and ' which' Gramma- 
 rians often recommend ' that ' as a means of varying the 
 style ; but this end ought to be sought in subservience to 
 the still greater end of perspicuity. 
 
 " The following examples will serve further to illustrate 
 the distinction between that, on the one hand, and -who and 
 which, on the other :
 
 202 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " ' In general, Mr. Burchell was fondest of the company 
 of children, whom he used to call harmless little men.' 
 4 Whom ' is here idiomatically used, being the equivalent of 
 ' and them he used to call,' etc. 
 
 " ' Bacon at last, a mighty man, arose, 
 Whom a wise king and nation chose 
 Lord Chancellor of both their laws.' 
 Here, also, ' whom ' is equal to ' and him.' 
 
 " In the following instance the relative is restrictive or 
 defining, and ' that ' would be preferable : ' the conclusion 
 of the " Iliad " is like the exit of a great man out of com- 
 pany -whom he has entertained magnificently.' Compare 
 another of Addison's sentences : ' a man of polite imagina- 
 tion is let into a great many pleasures that the vulgar are 
 not capable of receiving.' 
 
 " Both relatives are introduced discriminatingly in this 
 passage : ' She had learned that from Mrs. Wood, -who had 
 heard it from her husband, "who had heard it at the public- 
 house from the landlord, who had been let into the secret 
 by the boy that carried the beer to some of the prisoners.' 
 
 " The following sentences are ambiguous under the 
 modern system of using ' who ' for both purposes : ' I met 
 the boatman who took me across the ferry.' If ' who ' is 
 the proper relative here, the meaning is, ' I met the boatman, 
 and he took me across,' it being supposed that the boatman 
 is known and definite. But if there be several boatmen, 
 and I wish to indicate one in particular by the circumstance 
 that he had taken me across the ferry, I should use ' that.' 
 ' The youngest boy who has learned to dance is James.' 
 This means either ' the youngest boy is James, and he has 
 learned to dance,' or, ' of the boys, the youngest that has 
 learned to dance is James.' This last sense is restrictive, 
 and ' that ' should be used.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 203 
 
 '* Turning now to ' which,' we may have a series of 
 parallel examples. ' The court, which gives currency to 
 manners, should be exemplary ' : here the meaning is ' the 
 court should be exemplary, for the cozirt gives currency to 
 manners.' 'Which 'is the idiomatic relative in this case. 
 ' The cat, which you despise so much, is a very useful ani- 
 mal.' The relative here also is coordinating, and not re 
 strictive. If it were intended to point out one individual 
 cat specially despised by the person addressed, ' that ' would 
 convey the sense. 'A theory which does not tend to the 
 improvement of practice is utterly unworthy of regard.' 
 The meaning is restrictive ; ' a theory that does not tend.' 
 The following sentence is one of many from Goldsmith that 
 give ' that ' instead of ' which ' : ' Age, that lessens the en- 
 joyment of life, increases our desire of living.' Thackeray 
 also was fond of this usage. But it is not very common. 
 
 " ' Their faith tended to make them improvident ; but a 
 wise instinct taught them that if there was one thing which 
 ought not to be left to fate, or to the precepts of a deceased 
 prophet, it was the artillery ' ; a case where ' that ' is the 
 proper relative. 
 
 " ' All words, which are signs of complex ideas, furnish 
 matter of mistake.' This gives an erroneous impression, 
 and should be ' all words that are signs of complex ideas.' 
 
 " ' In all cases of prescription, the universal practice of 
 judges is to direct juries by analogy to the Statute of Limi- 
 tations, to decide against incorporeal rights -which have for 
 many years been relinquished ' : say instead, ' incorporeal 
 rights that have for many years,' and the sense is clear. 
 
 " It is necessary for the proper understanding of ' which ' 
 to advert to its peculiar function of referring to a whole 
 clause as the antecedent : ' William ran along the top of the 
 wall, which alarmed his mother very much.' The antece-
 
 204 
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 dent is obviously not the noun ' wall,' but the fact expressed 
 by the entire clause ' William ran,' etc. ' He by no means 
 wants sense, which only serves to aggravate his former folly ' ; 
 namely, (not ' sense,' but) the circumstance ' that he does 
 not want sense.' ' He is neither over-exalted by prosperity, 
 nor too much depressed by misfortune ; which you must 
 allow marks a great mind.' ' We have done many things 
 which we ought not to have done,' might mean ' we ought 
 not to have done many things ' ; that is, ' we ought to have 
 done few things.' ' That ' would give the exact sense in- 
 tended : ' we have done many things that we ought not to 
 have done.' ' He began to look after his affairs himself, 
 which was the way to make them prosper.' 
 
 " We must next allude to the cases where the relative is 
 governed by a preposition. We can use a preposition be- 
 fore ' who ' and ' which,' but when the relative is ' that,' the 
 preposition must be thrown to the end of the clause. Owing 
 to an imperfect appreciation of the genius of our language, 
 offense was taken at this usage by some of our leading 
 writers at the beginning of last century, and to this circum- 
 stance we must refer the disuse of ' that ' as the relative of 
 restriction.* 
 
 * " Speaking of Dryden, Hallam says, ' His " Essay on Dramatic 
 Poesy," published in 1668, was reprinted sixteen years afterward, and 
 it is curious to observe the changes which Dryden made in the expres- 
 sion. Malone has carefully noted all these ; they show both the care 
 the author took with his own style, and the change which was gradually 
 working in the English language. The Anglicism of terminating the 
 sentence with a preposition is rejected. Thus, " I can not think so 
 contemptibly of the age I live in," is exchanged for " the age in which 
 I live." " A deeper expression of belief than all the actor can persuade 
 us to," is altered, " can insinuate into us." And, though the old form 
 continued in use long after the time of Dryden, it has of late years been 
 reckoned inelegant, and proscribed in all cases, perhaps with an unne- 
 cessary fastidiousness, to which I have not uniformly deferred, since
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 205 
 
 " ' It is curious that the only circumstance connected 
 with Scott, and related by Lockhart, of ivhich I was a wit- 
 ness, is incorrectly stated in the " Life of Sir Walter." ' 
 Leslie's ' Memoirs.' The relative should be restrictive : 
 1 that I was a witness of.' 
 
 " ' There are many words -which are adjectives which 
 have nothing to do with the qualities of the nouns to which 
 they are put.' Cobbett. Better : ' there are many words 
 that are adjectives that have nothing to do with the qualities 
 of the nouns (that) they are put to' 
 
 " ' Other objects, of -which we have not occasion to speak 
 so frequently, we do not designate by a name of their own. 1 
 This, if amended, would be : ' other objects that we have 
 not occasion to speak 0/so frequently, we do not,' etc. 
 
 " ' Sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which 
 we refuse to be divorced ' : ' the only sorrow (that) we re- 
 fuse to be divorced from! 
 
 " ' Why, there is not a single sentence in this play that 
 I do not know the meaning of' Addison. 
 
 our language is of Teutonic structure, and the rules of Latin and French 
 grammar are not always to bind us.' 
 
 " The following examples, taken from Massinger's ' Grand Duke of 
 Florence," will show what was the usage of the Elizabethan writers: 
 " ' For I must use the freedom / was born -with.' 
 " ' In that dumb rhetoric which you make use of! 
 
 " ' if I had been heir 
 
 Of all the globes and sceptres mankind bows to. 1 
 
 " ' the name of friend 
 
 Which you are pleased to grace me with' 
 
 " ' wilfully ignorant in my opinion 
 
 Of what it did invite him to? 
 "'I look to her as on a princess 
 / dare not be ambitious of.' 
 
 " ' a duty 
 
 That I was born with.''
 
 206 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 " ' Originality is a thing we constantly clamor for, and 
 constantly quarrel with.' Carlyle. 
 
 " ' A spirit more amiable, but less vigorous, than Luther's 
 would have shrunk back from the dangers which he braved 
 and surmounted ' : ' that he braved ' ; ' the dangers braved 
 and surmounted by him.' 
 
 " ' Nor is it at all improbable that the emigrants had 
 been guilty of those faults from which civilized men who 
 settle among an uncivilized people are rarely free.' Ma- 
 caulay. ' Nor is it at all improbable that the emigrants 
 had been guilty of the faults that (such faults as) civilized 
 men that settle (settling, or settled} among an uncivilized 
 people are rarely free from.' 
 
 " ' Prejudices are notions or opinions which the mind 
 entertains without knowing the grounds and reasons of 
 them, and which are assented to without examination.' 
 Berkeley. The 'which' in both cases should be 'that,' 
 but the relative may be entirely dispensed with 'by parti- 
 cipial conversion : ' prejudices are notions or opinions en- 
 tertained by the mind without knowing the grounds and 
 reasons of them, and assented to without examination.' 
 
 " The too frequent repetition of ' who ' and ' which ' 
 may be avoided by resolving them into the conjunction and 
 personal or other pronoun : ' In such circumstances, the 
 utmost that Bosquet could be expected to do was to hold 
 his ground, (which) and this he did." " Bain's " Higher 
 English Grammar." 
 
 This word is sometimes vulgarly used for so ; thus, 
 " I was that nervous I forgot everything " ; "I was that 
 frightened I could hardly stand." 
 
 The. Bungling writers sometimes write sheer non- 
 sense, or say something very different from what they have 
 in their minds, by the simple omission of the definite arti-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 207 
 
 cle ; thus, " The indebtedness of the English tongue to the 
 French, Latin and Greek is disclosed in almost every sen- 
 tence framed." According to this, there is such a thing as 
 a French, Latin and Greek tongue. Professor Townsend 
 meant to say : " The indebtedness of the English tongue to 
 the French, the Latin, and the Greek," etc. 
 
 Then. The use of this word as an adjective is con- 
 demned in very emphatic terms by some of our gram- 
 marians, and yet this use of it has the sanction of such 
 eminent writers as Addison, Johnson, Whately, and Sir J. 
 Hawkins. Johnson says, " In his theti situation," which, 
 if brevity be really the soul of wit, certainly has much 
 more soul in it than " In the situation he then occupied." 
 However, it is doubtful whether then, as an adjective, will 
 ever again find favor with careful writers. 
 
 Thence. See WHENCE. 
 
 Think for. We not unfrequently hear a superfluous 
 for tacked to a sentence ; thus, " You will find that he 
 knows more about the affair than you think for" 
 
 Those kind. " Those kind of apples are best " : read, 
 " That kind of apples is best." It is truly remarkable that 
 many persons who can justly lay claim to the possession 
 of considerable culture use this barbarous combination. It 
 would be just as correct to say, " Those flock of geese," or 
 " Those drove of cattle," as to say, " Those sort or kind of 
 people." 
 
 Those who. This phrase, applied in a restrictive sense, 
 is the modern substitute for the ancient idiom they that, an 
 idiom in accordance with the true meaning of that. 
 
 " ' They that told me the story said ' ; ' Blessed are 
 
 they that mourn ' ; ' and Simon and they that were with 
 
 him ' ; ' I love them that love me, and they that seek me 
 
 early shall find me ' ; ' they that are whole have no need of 
 
 14
 
 zo8 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 a physician ' ; ' how sweet is the rest of them that labor ! ' 
 ' I can not tell who to compare them to so fitly as to them 
 that pick pockets in the presence of the judge ' ; ' they that 
 enter into the state of marriage cast a die of the greatest 
 contingency' (J. Taylor). 
 
 " ' That man hath perfect blessedness 
 
 Who walketh not astray,' 
 
 if expressed according to the old idiom would be, ' the man 
 hath that walketh.' 
 
 " ' That ' and ' those,' as demonstrative adjectives, refer 
 backward, and are not therefore well suited for the forward 
 reference implied in making use of ' that which ' and ' those 
 who ' as restrictive relatives. It is also very cumbrous to 
 say ' that case to -which you allude ' for ' the case (that) you 
 allude to' 
 
 " Take now the following : ' The Duke of Wellington 
 is not one of those who interfere with matters over which 
 he has no control ' : ' the Duke is not one of them that in" 
 terfere in matters that they have no control over (matters 
 that they can not control, beyond their control, out of their 
 province).' If ' them that ' sounds too antiquated, we may 
 adopt as a convenient compromise, ' the Duke is not one 
 of those that ' ; or, ' the Duke is not one to interfere in mat- 
 ters out of his province ' ; ' the duke is not one that inter- 
 feres with what he has no control over! " Bain. 
 
 Threadbare Quotations. Among the things that are 
 in bad taste in speaking and writing, the use of threadbare 
 quotations and expressions is in the front rank. Some of 
 these use's et casses old-timers are the following: "Their 
 name is legion"; "hosts of friends"; "the upper ten". 
 "Variety is the spice of life"; "Distance lends enchant- 
 ment to the view" ; "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever" ; 
 v the light fantastic toe " ; " own the soft impeachment " ;
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 209 
 
 "fair women and. brave men"; "revelry by night"; "A 
 rose by any other name would smell as sweet." 
 
 To. It is a well-established rule of grammar that to, 
 the sign of the infinitive mood, should not be used for the 
 infinitive itself; thus, " He has not done it, nor is he likely 
 to" It should be, " nor is he likely to do it" 
 
 We often find to , when the sign of the infinitive, sepa- 
 rated by an adverb from the verb to which it belongs, 
 Professor A. P. Peabody says that no standard Englis'.i 
 writer makes this mistake, and that, so far as he knows, it 
 occurs frequently with but one respectable American writer. 
 
 Very often to is used instead of at ; thus, " I have been 
 to the theatre, to church, tj my uncle's, to a concert," and so 
 on. In all these cases, the preposition to use is clearly at, 
 and not to. See, also, AND. 
 
 To the Fore. An old idiomatic phrase, now freely 
 used again. 
 
 Tongue. " Much tongue and much judgment seldom 
 go together." L'Estrange. See LANGUAGE. 
 
 Toward. Those who profess to know about such 
 things say that etymology furnishes no pretext for the add- 
 ing of s to ward in such words as backward, forward, to- 
 ward, upward, onward, downward, afterward, heavenward, 
 earthward, and the like. 
 
 Transferred Epithet. This is the shifting of a qualify- 
 ing word from its proper subject to some allied subject. 
 Examples : 
 
 " The little fields made green 
 
 By husbandry of many thrifty years" 
 
 "He plods his weary way." " Hence to your idle bed!" 
 By this figure the diction is rendered more terse and vigor- 
 ous ; it is much used in verse. For the sake of conciseness, 
 it is used in prose in such phrases as the lunatic
 
 Zio THE VERBALIST. 
 
 the criminal court, the condemned cell, the blind asylum, 
 the cholera hospital, the foundling asylum, and the like. 
 " Still in harmonious intercourse they lived 
 The rural day, and talked the flowing heart." 
 
 " There be some who, with everything to make them 
 happy, plod their discontented and melancholy way through 
 life, less grateful than the dog that licks the hand that 
 feeds it." 
 
 Transpire. This is one of the most frequently mis- 
 used words in the language. Its primary meaning is to 
 evaporate insensibly through the pores, but in this sense it 
 is not used ; in this sense we use its twin sister /^rspire. 
 Transpire is now properly used in the sense of to escape 
 from secrecy, to become known, to leak out ; and improp- 
 erly used in the sense of to occur, to happen, to come to 
 pass, and to elapse. The word is correctly used thus : 
 " You will not let a word concerning the matter transpire" ; 
 " It transpires [leaks out] that S. & B. control the enter- 
 prise " ; " Soon after the funeral it transpired [became 
 known] that the dead woman was alive " ; "It has trans- 
 pired [leaked out] that the movement originated with John 
 Blank" ; "No report of the proceedings was allowed to 
 transpire " ; " It has not yet transpired who the candidate 
 is to be." The word is incorrectly used thus : " The Mex- 
 ican war transpired in 1847 " ; " The drill will transpire 
 under shelter"; "The accident transjired one day last 
 week " ; " Years will transpire before it will be finished " ; 
 " More than a century transpired before it was revisited by 
 civilized man." 
 
 Trifling Minutiae. The meaning of trifles and of minu- 
 tia: is so nearly the same that no one probably ever uses 
 the phrase trifling minutia except from thoughtlessness. 
 
 Trustworthy. See RELIABLE.
 
 THE VERBALIST. 2 ll 
 
 Try. This word is often improperly used for make. 
 We make experiments, not try them, which is as incorrect 
 as it would be to say, try the attempt, or the ttial. 
 
 Ugly. In England, this word is restricted to meaning 
 ill-favored ; with us it is often used and not without au- 
 thority in the sense of ill-tempered, vicious, unmanageable. 
 
 Unbeknown. This word is no longer used except by 
 the unschooled. 
 
 Underhanded. This word, though found in the dic- 
 tionaries, is a vulgarism, and as such is to be avoided. 
 The proper word is underhand. An underhand, not an 
 underhanded, proceeding. 
 
 Universal All. " He is universally esteemed by all 
 who know him." If he is universally esteemed, he must 
 be esteemed by all who know him ; and, if he is esteemed 
 by all who know him, he must be universally esteemed. 
 
 Upward of. This phrase is often used, if not im- 
 properly, at least inelegantly, for more than ; thus, " I have 
 been here for upward of a year" ; " For upward of three 
 quarters of a century she has," etc., meaning, for more than 
 three quarters of a century. 
 
 Utter. This verb is often misused for say, express. 
 To utter means to speak, to pronounce ; and its deriva- 
 tive utterance means the act, manner, or power of utter- 
 ing, vocal expression ; as, " the utterance of articulate 
 sounds." We utter a cry ; express a thought or sentiment ; 
 speak our mind ; and, though prayers are said, they may be 
 uttered in a certain tone or manner. " Mr. Blank is right 
 in all he utters" : read, says. "The court uttered a senti- 
 ment that all will applaud " : read, expressed a sentiment. 
 
 The primary meaning of the adjective utter is outer, 
 on the outside ; but it is no longer used in this sense. It is 
 now used in the sense of complete, total, perfect, mere,
 
 2)2 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 entire ; but he who uses it indiscriminately as a synonym 
 of these words will frequently utter utter nonsense i. e., he 
 will utter that which is without the pale of sense. For 
 example, we can not say utter concord, but we can say utter 
 discord i. e., without the pale of concord. 
 
 Valuable. The following sentence, which recently ap- 
 peared in one of the more fastidious of our morning papers, 
 is offered as an example of extreme slipshodness in the use 
 of language: "Sea captains are among the most valuable 
 contributors to the Park aviary." What the writer proba- 
 bly meant to say is, " Sea captains are among those whose 
 contributions to the Park aviary are the most valuable." 
 
 Vast. This word is often met with in forcible-feeble 
 diction, where it is used instead of great or large to qualify 
 such words as number, majority, multitude, and the like. 
 Big words and expletives should be used only where they 
 are really needed ; where they are not really needed, they 
 go wide of the object aimed at. The sportsman that hunts 
 small game with buck-shot comes home empty-handed. 
 
 Veracity. The loss would be a small one if we were 
 to lose this word and its derivatives. Truth and its deriva- 
 tives would supply all our needs. In the phrase so often 
 heard, "A man of truth and veracity," veracity is entirely 
 superfluous, it having precisely the same meaning as truth. 
 The phrase, " A big, large man," is equally good diction. 
 
 Verbiage. An unnecessary profusion of words is called 
 verbiage : verbosity, wordiness. 
 
 " I thought what I read of it verbiage." Johnson. 
 
 Sometime.": a better name than verbiage for wordiness 
 would be emptiness. Witness : " Clearness may be devel- 
 oped and cultivated in three ways, (a) By constantly prac- 
 ticing in heart and life the thoughts and ways of honesty and 
 frankness." The first sentence evidently means, " Clear-
 
 THE VERBALIST. 213 
 
 ness may be attained in three ways " ; but what the second 
 sentence means if it means anything is more than I can 
 tell. Professor L. T. Townsend, " Art of Speech," vol. i, 
 p. 130, adds: " This may be regarded as the surest path to 
 greater transparency of style." The transparency of Dr. 
 Townsend's style is peculiar. Also, p. 144, we find : " The 
 laws and rules ' thus far laid down 8 furnish ample founda- 
 tion for 8 the general statement that an easy and natural * 
 expression, an exact verbal incarnation of one's thinking, 5 
 together with the power of using appropriate figures, and 
 of making nice discriminations between approximate syno- 
 nyms, 6 each being an important factor in correct style, are 
 attained in two ways. 1 (i) Through moral 8 and mental 
 discipline. (2) Through continuous and intimate 9 ac- 
 quaintance with such authors as best exemplify those at- 
 tainments." 10 
 
 I. Would not laws cover the whole ground? 2. En 
 passant I would remark that Dr. Townsend did not make 
 these laws, though he so intimates. 3. I suggest the word 
 justify in place of these four. 4. What is natural is easy ; 
 easy, therefore, is superfluous. 5. If this means anything, 
 it does not mean more than the adjective clear would ex- 
 press, if properly used in the sentence. 6. Approximate 
 synonyms ! ! Who ever heard of any antagonistic or even 
 of dissimilar synonyms ? 7. The transparency of this sen- 
 tence is not unlike the transparency of corrugated glass. 
 8. What has morality to do with correctness ? g. An in- 
 timate acquaintance would suffice for most people. 10. 
 Those attainments! What are they? Dr. Townsend's 
 corrugated style makes it hard to tell. 
 
 This paragraph is so badly conceived throughout that 
 it is well-nigh impossible to make head, middle, or tail of 
 it ; still, if I am at all successful in guessing what Professor
 
 214 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Townsend wanted to say in it, then when shorn of its 
 redundancy and high-flown emptiness it will read some- 
 what like this : " The laws thus far presented justify the 
 general statement that a clear and natural mode of ex- 
 pression together with that art of using appropriate figures 
 and that ability properly to discriminate between syno- 
 nyms which are necessary to correctness is attained in 
 two ways, (i) By mental discipline. (2) By the study of 
 our best authors." 
 
 The following sentence is from a leading magazine : " If 
 we begin a system of interference, regulating men's gains, 
 bolstering here, in order to strengthen this interest, [and] re- 
 pressing elsewhere [there], in order to equalize wealth, we 
 shall do an [a] immense deal of mischief, and without bring- 
 ing about a more agreeable condition of things than now 
 [we] shall simply discourage enterprise, repress industry, 
 and check material growth in all directions." Read with- 
 out the eighteen words in italics and with the four inclosed. 
 
 " Nothing disgusts sooner than the empty pomp of lan- 
 guage." 
 
 Vice. See CRIME. 
 
 Vicinity. This word is sometimes incorrectly used 
 without the possessive pronoun; thus, "Washington and 
 vicinity," instead of "Washington and its vicinity." The 
 primary meaning of vicinity is nearness, proximity. In 
 many of the cases in which vicinity is used, neighborhood 
 would be the better word, though vicinity is perhaps prefer- 
 able where it is a question of mere locality. 
 
 Vocation Avocation. These words are frequently 
 confounded. A man's vocation is his profession, his call- 
 ing, his business ; and his avocations are the things that 
 occupy him incidentally. Mademoiselle Bernhardt's voca- 
 tion is acting ; her avocations are painting and sculpture.
 
 THE VERBALIST, 
 
 21 5 
 
 * The tracing of resemblances among the objects and events 
 of the world is a constant avocation of the human mind." 
 
 Vulgar. By the many, this word is probably more 
 frequently used improperly than properly. As a noun, it 
 means the common people, the lower orders, the multi- 
 tude, the many ; as an adjective, it means coarse, low, 
 unrefined, as " the vulgar people." The sense in which 
 it is misused is that of immodest, indecent. The wearing, 
 for example, of a gown too short at the top may be inde- 
 tent, but is not vulgar. 
 
 Was. " He said he had come to the conclusion that 
 there was no God." " The greatest of Byron's works was 
 his whole work taken together." Matthew Arnold. What 
 is true at all times should be expressed by using the verb 
 in the present tense. The sentences above should read is, 
 not was. 
 
 Wharf. See DOCK. 
 
 What. " He would not believe but what I did it " : 
 read, but that. " I do not doubt but what I shall go to 
 Boston to-morrow " : read, doubt that. We say properly, 
 " I have nothing but what you see " ; " You have brought 
 everything but what I wanted." 
 
 Whence. As this adverb means unaided from what 
 place, source, or cause, it is, as Dr. Johnson styled it, " a 
 vicious mode of speech " to say from whence, Milton to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. Nor is there any more pro- 
 priety in the phrase from thence, as thence means unaided 
 from that place. " Whence do you come ? " not " From 
 whence do you come ?" Likewise, " He went hence" not 
 "from hence." 
 
 Whether. This conjunction is often improperly re- 
 peated in a sentence ; thus, " I have not decided whether 
 I shall go to Boston or whether I shall go to Philadelphia'."
 
 2 l6 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 Which. This pronoun as an interrogative applies to 
 persons as well as to things y as a relative, it is now made 
 to refer to things only. 
 
 " Which is employed in coordinate sentences, where it, 
 or they, and a conjunction might answer the purpose ; thus, 
 4 At school I studied geometry, which (and it) I found 
 useful afterward.' Here the new clause is something inde- 
 pendent added to the previous clause, and not limiting 
 that clause in any way. So in the adjectival clause ; as, 
 4 He struck the poor dog, which (and it, or although it) had 
 never done him harm.' Such instances represent the most 
 accurate meaning of -which. Who and which might be 
 termed the COORDINATING RELATIVES. 
 
 " Which is likewise used in restrictive clauses that limit 
 or explain the antecedent ; as, ' The house which he built 
 still remains.' Here the clause introduced by which speci- 
 fies, or points out, the house that is the subject of the 
 statement, namely, by the circumstance that a certain per- 
 son built it. As remarked with regard to who, our most 
 idiomatic writers prefer that in this particular application, 
 and would say, ' The house that he built still remains.' " 
 
 " Which sometimes has a special reference attaching to 
 it, as the neuter relative : ' Caesar crossed the Rubicon, 
 which was in effect a declaration of war.' The antecedent 
 in this instance is not Rubicon, but the entire clause. 
 
 " There is a peculiar usage where -which may seem to 
 be still regularly used in reference to persons, as in ' John 
 is a soldier, which I should like to be,' that is, 'And I 
 should like to be a soldier! " See THAT. 
 
 Who. There are few persons, even among the most 
 cultivated, who do not make frequent mistakes in the use 
 of this pronoun. They say, " W ho did you see ? " " Who 
 did you meet ? " " Who did he marry ? " " Who did you
 
 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 217 
 
 hear ? " " Who did he know ? " " Who are you writing 
 to ? " " Who are you looking at ? " In all these sentences 
 the interrogative pronoun is in the objective case, and 
 should be used in the objective form, which is whom, and 
 not who. To show that these sentences are not correct, 
 and are not defensible by supposing any ellipsis whatso- 
 ever, we have only to put the questions in another form. 
 Take the first one, and, instead of " Who did you see ?" 
 say, "Who saw you?" which, if correct, justifies us in saying, 
 " Who knew he," which is the equivalent of " Who did he 
 know ? " But " Who saw you ? " in this instance, is clearly 
 not correct, since it says directly the opposite of what is 
 intended. 
 
 Who was little used as a relative till about the six- 
 teenth century. Bain says : " In modern use, more espe- 
 cially in books, who is frequently employed to introduce a 
 clause intended to restrict, define, limit, or explain a noun 
 (or its equivalent) ; as, ' That is the man who spoke to us 
 yesterday.' " 
 
 " Here the clause introduced by who is necessary to 
 define or explain the antecedent the man ; without it, we 
 do not know who the man is. Such relative clauses are 
 typical adjective clauses i. e., they have the same effect as 
 adjectives in limiting nouns. This may be called the 
 RESTRICTIVE use of the relative. 
 
 " Now it will be found that the practice of our most 
 idiomatic writers and speakers is to prefer that to who in 
 this application. 
 
 " Who is properly used in such coordinate sentences 
 as, ' I met the watchman, who told me there had been a 
 fire.' Here the two clauses are distinct and independent ; 
 in such a case, and he might be substituted for who. 
 
 " Another form of the same use is when the second
 
 2i8 THE VERBALIST. 
 
 clause is of the kind termed adverbial, where we may re- 
 solve who into a personal or demonstrative pronoun and 
 conjunction. 'Why should we consult Charles, -who (for 
 he, seeing that he) knows nothing of the matter ? ' 
 
 " Who may be regarded as a modern objective form, 
 side by side with -whom. For many good writers and 
 speakers say ' who are you talking of ? ' ' -who does the gar- 
 den belong to ? ' ' who is this for ? ' ' -who from ? ' " etc. 
 
 If this be true if who may be regarded as a modern 
 objective form, side by side with -whom then, of course, 
 such expressions as " Who did you see ? " " Who did you 
 meet ?" " Who did he marry ? " " Who were you with ? " 
 " Who will you give it to ?" and the like, are correct. That 
 they are used colloquially by well-nigh everybody, no one 
 will dispute ; but that they are correct, few grammarians will 
 concede. See THAT. 
 
 Whole. This word is sometimes most improperly used 
 for all ; thus, " The whole Germans seem to be saturated 
 with the belief that they are really the greatest people on 
 earth, and that they would be universally recognized as 
 being the greatest, if they were not so exceeding modest." 
 " The whole Russians are inspired with the belief that their 
 mission is to conquer the world." Alison. 
 
 Wholesome. See HEALTHY. 
 
 Whose. Mr. George Washington Moon discounte- 
 nances the use of whose as the possessive of which. He 
 says, " The best writers, when speaking of inanimate ob- 
 jects, use of which instead of whose." The correctness of 
 this statement is doubtful. The truth is, I think, that good 
 writers use that form for the possessive case of -which that 
 in their judgment is, in each particular case, the more 
 euphonious, giving the preference, perhaps, to of which. 
 On this subject Dr. Campbell says: "The possessive of
 
 THE VERBALIST. 2l g 
 
 who is properly whose. The pronoun which, originally in- 
 declinable, had no possessive. This was supplied, in the 
 common periphrastic manner, by the help of the preposi- 
 tion and the article. But, as this could not fail to enfeeble 
 the expression, when so much time was given to mere coru 
 junctives, all our best authors, both in prose and verse, 
 have now come regularly to adopt, in such cases, the pos-, 
 sessive of who, and thus have substituted one syllable in 
 the room of three, as in the example following : ' Philosophy, 
 whose end is to instruct us in the knowledge of nature,' for 
 ' Philosophy, the end of which is to instruct us.' Some 
 grammarians remonstrate ; but it ought to be remembered 
 that use, well established, must give law to grammar, and 
 not grammar to use." 
 
 Professor Bain says : " Whose, although the possessive 
 of who, and practically of "which, is yet frequently em- 
 ployed for the purpose of restriction : ' We are the more 
 likely to guard watchfully against those faults whose de- 
 formity we have seen fully displayed in others.' This is 
 better than ' the deformity of which we have seen.' ' Prop- 
 ositions of whose truth we have no certain knowledge.' 
 Locke." Dr. Fitzedward Hall says that the use of whose 
 for of which, where the antecedent is not only irrational 
 but inanimate, has had the support of high authority for 
 several hundred years. 
 
 Widow Woman. Since widows are always women, 
 why say a widow woman ? It would be perfectly correct 
 to say a widowed woman. 
 
 Widowhood. There is good authority for using this 
 word in speaking of men as well as of women. 
 
 Without. This word is often improperly used instead 
 of unless ; as, " You will never live to my age without you 
 keep yourself in breath and exercise " ; "I shall not go
 
 2ZO THE VERBALIST. 
 
 without my father consents " : properly, unless my father 
 consents, or, without my father's consent. 
 
 Worst. We should say at the worst, not at worst, 
 
 Wove. The past participle of the verb to weave is 
 woven. " Where was this cloth woven ? " not wove. 
 
 You are mistaken. See MISTAKEN. 
 
 You was. Good usage does, and it is to be hoped 
 always will, consider you was a gross vulgarism, certain 
 grammarians to the contrary notwithstanding. You is the 
 form of the pronoun in the second person plural, and must, 
 if we would speak correctly, be used with the correspond- 
 ing form of the verb. The argument that we use you in the 
 singular number is so nonsensical that it does not merit a 
 moment's consideration. It is a custom we have and 
 have in common with other peoples to speak to one an- 
 other in the second person plural, and that is all there is 
 of it. The Germans speak to one another in the third per- 
 son plural. The exact equivalent in German of our IIoiu 
 are you? is, How are they ? Those who would say you was 
 should be consistent, and in like manner sayj0 has and 
 you does. 
 
 Yours, &c. The ignorant and obtuse not unfrequently 
 profess themselves at the bottom of their letters "Yours, 
 &c." And so forth ! forth what? Few vulgarisms are equally 
 offensive, and none could be more so. In printing corre* 
 spondence, the newspapers often content themselves with 
 this short-hand way of intimating that the writer's name 
 was preceded by some one of the familiar forms of ending 
 letters ; this an occasional dunderhead seems to think is 
 Sufficient authority for writing himself, Yours. &c. 
 
 THE END.
 
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