In the same manner, the subject of a conversation need not be made a
matter of study, or special preparation. Men may talk of things momentous
or trivial, and in either strain be alike attractive and agreeable.

But quitting the consideration of the thought, to refer to the mode of its
expression, it must be remarked and insisted, that to "murder the king's
English" is hardly less a crime, than to design against one of the king's
subjects. If committed from ignorance, the fault is at least deplorable;
but if from carelessness, it is inexcusable. The greatest of sciences is
that of language; the greatest of human arts is that of using words. No
"cunning hand" of the artificer can contrive a work of mechanism that is
to be compared, for a moment, with those wonderful masterpieces of
ingenuity, which may be wrought by him who can skilfully mould a beautiful
thought into a form that shall preserve, yet radiate its beauty. A mosaic
of words may be made more fair, than of inlaid precious stones. The
scholar who comes forth from his study, a master of the English language,
is a workman who has at his command hardly less than a hundred thousand
finely-tempered instruments, with which he may fashion the most cunning
device. This is a trade which all should learn, for it is one that every
individual is called to practise. The greatest support of virtue in a
community is intelligence; intelligence is the outgrowth of knowledge; and
the almoner of all knowledge is language. The possession, therefore, of
the resources, and a command over the appliances of language, is of the
utmost importance to every individual. Words are current coins of the
realm, and they who do not have them in their treasury, suffer a more
pitiable poverty than others who have not a penny of baser specie in their
pocket; and the multitude of those who have an unfailing supply, but which
is of the wrong stamp, are possessed only of counterfeit cash, that will
not pass in circles of respectability. The present work therefore is, in
some respects, not unlike the "Detector" issued for the merchants, to
indicate the great amount of worthless money that is in general
circulation with the good.

It is not to be supposed that all the mistakes of daily occurrence in the
use of language, are to be numbered by "five hundred"--possibly not by
five thousand; but it is evident that he who is instructed against five
hundred of his habitual blunders, and enabled to steer cle