the ball:” pronounce impetus with the stress on im, and not on pe.

64. “Spain and Portugal form a peninsula:” pronounce pen-in-su-la, with the accent on in, and not on su.

65. Sar-da-na-pa-lus: pronounce it with the accent on pa, and not on ap. The latter pronunciation cannot be changed for the former, without incurring a gross error.

66. “He must by this time be almost as far as the antipodes:” pronounce antipodes with the accent on tip, and let des rhyme with ease; it is a word of four syllables, and not of three.

67. Vouchsafe: a word seldom used, but when used, the first syllable should rhyme with pouch; never say vousafe.

68. “The land in those parts is very fertile:” pronounce fertile so as to rhyme with myrtle. Ile in such words must be sounded as ill, with the exception of exile, senile, gentile, reconcile, and camomile, in which ile rhymes with mile.

69. Benefited: often spelt benefitted, but incorrectly.

70. “Gather a few ears of corn for dinner:” pronounce gather so as to rhyme with lather, and not gether.

71. Purpose and propose: these two words, which are often confounded, are entirely distinct in meaning. To purpose means to intend; to propose means to offer a proposition.

72. Directing and addressing letters: Directing designates the persons to whom, and the place to which the letter, as a parcel, is to be sent; addressing refers to the individual to whom, as a communication, it is written. A letter addressed to the President, may be directed to his secretary.

73. “Who do you think I saw yesterday?” say, Whom.

74. A popular proverb is expressed in the following language: “Of two evils choose the least;” say, the less. Of no less than three evils can a person choose the least.

75. Exaggerate: pronounce exad-gerate, and do not sound agger as in dagger.

76. Ladies School: the usual form, but not correct; write, Ladies’ School. The apostrophe (’) is thus used after nouns in the plural, and indicates possession. In the singular, it is placed before the s, as, The lady’s school.

77. The following equivocal notice is said to swing out on a sign-board somewhere in the Western country: “Smith & Huggs—Select School.—Smith teaches the boys, and Huggs the girls.” Huggs needs correction!

78. “He keeps a chaise:” pronounce it shaze, and not shay; it has a regular plural, chaises.

79. “The drought lasted a long time:” pronounce drought so as to rhyme with sprout, and not drowth.

80. “The two friends conversed together for an hour:” omit together, as the full meaning of this word is implied in con, which means with, or together, or in company.

81. “The affair was compromised:” pronounce compromised in three syllables, and place the accent on com, sounding mised like prized.

82. “A steam-engine:” pronounce engine with en as in pen, and not like in; also, pronounce gine like gin.

83. “Several of the trappers were massacred by the Indians:” pronounce massacred with the accent on mas, and red like erd, as if massaker’d; never say massacreed, which is abominable.

84. “The King of Israel and the King of Judah sat either of them on his throne:” say, each of them. Either signifies the one or the other, but not both. Each relates to two or more objects, and signifies both of the two, or every one of any number taken singly. We can say, “either of the three,” for “one of the three.”

85. “A respite was granted the convict:” pronounce respite with the accent on res, and sound pite as pit.

86. “He soon returned back:” leave out back, which is implied by re in returned.

87. “The ship looked like a speck on the edge of the horizon:” pronounce horizon with the accent on ri, and not on hor, which is often the case.

88. “They were early at the sepulchre:” pronounce sepulchre with the accent on sep, and not on the second syllable.

89. “I have often swam across the Hudson:” say, swum.

90. “I found my friend better than I expected to have found him:” say, to find him.

91. “I intended to have written a letter yesterday:” say, to write; as however long it now is since I thought of writing, “to write” was then present to me, and must still be considered as present, when I recall that time and the thoughts of it.

92. Superfluous R’s: Many persons pronounce words which have no letter r in them, exactly as though they had; as drawring for drawing; “I sawr Thomas,” for “I saw,” &c. Some who do not insert a full-toned r, do worse by appending an ah to almost every word they utter. They would do well to recall the reproof which the excellent Rev. John Gruber administered to a brother in the ministry, who was guilty of this habit. That eccentric clergyman addressed a note to his friend, as follows: “Dear-ah Sir-ah—When-ah you-ah speak-ah in-ah public-ah, take-ah my-ah ad-ah-vice-ah and-ah never-ah say-ah ah-ah!—John-ah Gruber-ah.”

93. Shall and will are often confounded, or misused. The following suggestion will be of service to the reader: mere futurity is expressed by shall in the first person, and by will in the second and third; the determination of the speaker by will, in the first, and shall, in the second and third. For example: “I shall go by the way of Halifax,” simply expresses an event about to take place—as also you will, and they will: I will expresses determination—as also you shall and they shall. Brightland has the following illustrative stanza:

“In the first person simply shall foretells;
In will a threat, or else a promise, dwells.
Shall, in the second and the third, does threat;—
Will, simply, then, foretells the future feat.”

94. “Without the grammatical form of a word can be recognized at a glance, little progress can be made in reading the language:” [from a work on the study of the Latin language:] say, Unless the grammatical, &c. The use of without for unless is a very common mistake.

95. “He claimed admission to the chiefest offices:” say, chief. Chief, right, supreme, correct, true, universal, perfect, consummate, extreme, &c., imply the superlative degree without adding est, or prefixing most. In language sublime or impassioned, however, the word perfect requires the superlative form, to give it its fullest effect.

96. “I