a large sum of money, or by submitting to severe punishment of some sort, every one of us who is interested in learning to write would be well supplied in a short while. But since this most happy end may be reached by very simple methods of study and practice, means which surround us all the days of our lives, we famish in our self-imposed weakness while we look in amazement at the power which others have developed by the very methods we ignore. It is not possible, of course, to offer a general prescription that will supply all individual needs; everyone must study his own case and find aids that are especially helpful to him. Yet all of us can profit by the suggestions in the following paragraphs.

ease.

A. SYSTEMATIC STUDY

1. The perusal of the dictionary. - Of the means which may be regarded primarily as study rather than practice, the most obvious is the habitual perusal of the dictionary. The first step in the mastery of a word is to make its acquaintance, and the classifications and cross references of the present-day dictionary enable us to make this preliminary step with comparative And we should not allow any carping pessimist by crying out, "Oh words, words, words!" to prevent us from improving ourselves in this supposedly incoherent way. We are getting not merely words, but the ideas for which they stand. "A word is a vehicle, a boat floating down from the past, laden with the thought of men we never saw; and in coming to understand it we enter not only into the minds of our contemporaries, but into the general mind of humanity continuous through time. The popular notion of learning to speak is that the child first has the idea and then gets from others a sound to use in communicating it; but a closer study shows that this is hardly true even of the simplest ideas, and is nearly the reverse of truth as regards developed thought. In that the word usually goes before, leading and kindling the idea - we should not have the latter if we did not have the word first. This way,' says the

word, 'is an interesting thought; come and find it.' And so we are led on to rediscover old knowledge. Such words, for instance, as good, right, truth, love, home, justice, beauty, freedom, are powerful makers of what they stand for." 1

Now much of this abundant life is preserved in a good dictionary. There we learn not only the bald definition of the word, but its spellings, its pronunciation, its derivation, the variety of meanings that it now has or has had, its synonyms, and its correct use in sentences. Moreover, in some of these ways, or in an explicit statement, we learn whether it is in good literary standing, whether it is a word that enjoys good company, or is out of date, or is too new to be used with assurance, or is so slangy that it offends good taste. In short, as a result of this study we know much of the real life that a word has lived.

2. The translation of foreign languages. — Equally important is the study of foreign languages. To-day there is much discussion of the value of languages as a means of "discipline." However that question may be settled, it will remain true that if all other opportunities are equal, the student who devotes a part of his time to translation will have a better English vocabulary than the one who does not. In the first place, such practice is valuable because it compels us to bring our words into use. Idioms that have no exact parallel in our own language must be expressed faithfully; and in order to find means, we must search every corner of our vocabulary. Again, the spirit of other peoples, and perhaps of other times, must be expressed in the English of to-day; and this task, too, involves the most careful examination of our own supply of words. Furthermore, in our study of a foreign language we are compelled to pass over the lines slowly, and in translating we hold our English words in mind until we weigh them, one by one, and decide upon those which most perfectly express the foreign writer's meaning. Thus not only the foreign words, but their English equivalents as well, are deeply impressed upon us. But there is still another advantage. Our study of the foreign tongue is sure to acquaint

1 Charles H. Cooley, Social Organization, p. 69. Charles Scribner's Sons.

us with the derivation of many English words, and thus not only increase the size of our vocabularies, but also suggest new meanings for words that we already use. That is to say, we are helped toward the mastery that enables us to make our words full of life. Hear Lowell in his address on The Study of Modern Languages:

"In reading such books as chiefly deserve to be read in any foreign language, it is wise to translate consciously and in words as we read. There is no such help to a fuller mastery of our vernacular. It compels us to such a choosing and testing, to so nice a discrimination of sound, propriety, position, and shade of meaning, that we now first learn the secret of the words we have been using or misusing all our lives, and are gradually made aware that to set forth even the plainest matter, as it should be set forth, is not only a very difficult thing, calling for thought and practice, but an affair of conscience as well."

3. The study of Old and Middle English texts. - Virtually all the benefits that may be derived from the study of foreign languages are to be found in a study of Old and Middle English. They are as far removed from us as are some of the foreign languages we study, they give us first-hand knowledge of the history of words, increase the range of our vocabularies by acquainting us with word relations and word formations in our own language, and, because of the changes many words have undergone in the past eight or ten centuries, give color and flavor to words that we know familiarly, but nearly always use thoughtlessly. Moreover, in study of this kind, we learn the history of English idioms, and thereby develop a feeling for words as they stand naturally in a phrase. We learn, too, by seeing how certain tendencies in the language have persisted for centuries, just why some characteristics of the national vocabulary must be respected by the writer to-day. The value of this study of the texts themselves is always increased distinctly by the reading of books like Greenough and Kittredge's Words and Their Ways in English Speech, Krapp's Modern English, Jespersen's Growth and Structure of the English Language, and parts of

Emerson's History of the English Language. Let us not fear that any supposedly unpractical knowledge of the language of our early ancestors will overburden us with "scholarship - or fill our writing with the phrase of the pedant. The poise that comes from such knowledge is the surest safeguard against looseness of speech.

4. The study of standard writers and speakers. Another method that is used successfully by a large number of persons is the close study of effective speakers and writers of our own time. It is to be commended chiefly for two reasons: it is easy to carry into execution, and it is a kind of study in which. we most nearly approach the unconscious assimilation that results from living continuously in the atmosphere of good English. Merely by listening attentively to a good speaker we catch some of his feeling for words; and feeling is ultimately a better guide to follow than any formal, dictionary standard. In reading there is a similar opportunity. We shall increase the influence of our reading, too, if we read carefully every line and every word on the page. It is true that circumstances sometimes make it necessary for us to do much reading hastily. But if we desire to increase our working vocabularies by seeing how others have used words effectively, we must spend enough time in the process really to see. The full meaning of a word cannot come to us if we are hastening rapidly by. We should, then, do at least a part of our reading with easy, comfortable deliberation. When we come upon a word that we do not know or only half know, let us pause long enough to become somewhat acquainted with it. If possible, we should read aloud, in order that the words may be impressed upon our memory through hearing as well as through seeing. Furthermore, the good effect of our reading is sure to be increased if we memorize from time to time some passages that are especially well expressed. Every book we read ought to give us some expressive words to add to our own stock. And if we but take the trouble to mark these words and bring them together on a slip of paper or the flyleaf of the book, we shall find that they are more

numerous and more interesting than we had ever believed. Here is a list which a student made while reading Professor Palmer's address on Self-Cultivation in English: Fecundity, caprice, compeers, severities, disparagement, vivacious, subtle, perversity, cudgel, debilitate, isolate, docility, compendious, volition, precepts, subsidiary, linguistic. Some of these words were not unknown to him, but all of them were outside his working vocabulary. How many of them are in yours?

B. PRACTICE

Systematic study, however, is most fruitful only when it is carried over into systematic practice. Using a word is a much surer means of fixing it in mind than merely discovering that it is worth using. Many kinds of practice, according to one's preferences, may be employed daily.

1. The characterization of familiar objects. One of these consists in characterizing familiar objects, sensations, persons, and stories. Small children, it is universally known, indulge in this practice with the utmost liberty, and frequently with embarrassing results for their older associates. But we adults need not offend anyone in order to test our skill in this respect. Perhaps we may choose to make the entire method a private one, to be used solely as a means of self-expression and not of communication. But, however that may be, we can rest in the assurance that in carrying on the practice we are not only focusing our powers of thought in the given instance, but are making less difficult the communication of thought in an indefinite number of other instances. For example, we shall soon refuse to content ourselves with a vague, incomplete notion of a book, when by a little thought and a little effort at expression we might find it crude, conventional, direct, clear, lucid, vague, caustic, definite, stilted, sympathetic, sincere, superficial, analytical, puzzling, prosy, blunt, convincing, bright, firm, faltering, refreshing, feeble, or vigorous.

2. The defining of familiar terms. A similarly beneficial