it. _Railroads_ are of so
recent invention that I find the word in only one dictionary; and that one
is wrong, in giving the word a hyphen, while half our printers are wrong,
in keeping the words separate because _Johnson_ did not compound them. But
is it not more important, to know whether we ought to write _railroad_, or
_rail-road_, or _rail road_, which we cannot learn from any of our
dictionaries, than to find out whether we ought to write _rocklo_, or
_roquelo_, or _roquelaur_, or _roquelaure_, which, in some form or other,
is found in them all? The duke of Roquelaure is now forgotten, and his
cloak is out of fashion.

OBS. 8.--No regular phrase, as I have taught in the second rule above,
should be needlessly converted into a compound word, either by tacking its
parts together with the hyphen, or by uniting them without a hyphen; for,
in general, a phrase is one thing, and a word is an other: and they ought
to be kept as distinct as possible.[113] But, when a whole phrase takes the
relation of an _adjective_, the words must be compounded, and the hyphen
becomes necessary; as, "An inexpressibly apt _bottle-of-small-beer_
comparison."--_Peter Pindar_. The occasions for the compounding of words,
are in general sufficiently plain, to any one who knows what is intended to
be said; but, as we compound words, sometimes with the hyphen, and
sometimes without, there is no small difficulty in ascertaining when to use
this mark, and when to omit it. "Some settled rule for the use of the
hyphen on these occasions, is much wanted. Modern printers have a strange
predilection for it; using it on almost every possible occasion. Mr. L.
Murray, who has only three lines on the subject, seems inclined to
countenance this practice; which is, no doubt, convenient enough for those
who do not like trouble. His words are: 'A Hyphen, marked thus - is
employed in connecting compounded words: as, Lap-dog, tea-pot,
pre-existence, self-love, to-morrow, mother-in-law.' Of his six examples,
Johnson, our only acknowledged standard, gives the first and third without
any separation between the syllables, _lapdog, preexistence_; his second
and fifth as two distinct words each, _tea pot, to morrow_; and his sixth
as three words, _mother in law_: so that only his fourth has the sanction
of the lexicographer. There certainly can be no more reason for putting a
hyphen after the common prefixes, than before the common affixes, _ness,
ly_, and the rest."-