-_Churchill's Gram._, p. 374.

OBS. 9.--Again: "While it would be absurd, to sacrifice the established
practice of all good authors to the ignorance of such readers [as could
possibly mistake for a diphthong the two contiguous vowels in such words as
_preexistence, cooperate_, and _reenter_]; it would unquestionably be
advantageous, to have some principle to guide us in that labyrinth of
words, in which the hyphen appears to have been admitted or rejected
arbitrarily, or at hap-hazard. Thus, though we find in Johnson,
_alms-basket, alms-giver_, with the hyphen; we have _almsdeed, almshouse,
almsman_, without: and many similar examples of an unsettled practice might
be adduced, sufficient to fill several pages. In this perplexity, is not
the pronunciation of the words the best guide? In the English language,
every word of more than one syllable is marked by an accent on some
particular syllable. Some very long words indeed admit a secondary accent
on _another_ syllable; but still this is much inferior, and leaves one
leading accent prominent: as in _expos'tulatory_. Accordingly, when a
compound has but one accented syllable in pronunciation, as _night'cap,
bed'stead, broad'sword_, the two words have coalesced completely into one,
and no hyphen should be admitted. On the other hand, when each of the
radical words has an accent, as _Chris'tian-name', broad'-shoul'dered_, I
think the hyphen should be used. _Good'-na'tured_ is a compound epithet
with two accents, and therefore requires the hyphen: in _good nature, good
will_, and similar expressions, _good_ is used simply as an adjective, and
of course should remain distinct from the noun. Thus, too, when a noun is
used adjectively, it should remain separate from the noun it modifies; as,
a _gold ring_, a _silver buckle_. When two numerals are employed to express
a number, without a conjunction between them, it is usual to connect them
by a hyphen; as, _twenty-five, eighty-four_: but when the conjunction is
inserted, the hyphen is as improper as it would be between other words
connected by the conjunction. This, however, is a common abuse; and we
often meet with _five-&-twenty, six-&-thirty_, and the like."--_Ib._, p.
376. Thus far Churchill: who appears to me, however, too hasty about the
hyphen in compound numerals. For we write _one hundred, two hundred, three
thousand_, &c., without either hyphen or conjunction; and as
_five-and-twenty_ is equivalent to _twenty-five_, and