the dentist lays hold of
the one he needs. Now this facility of his is not a blessing with which a
gracious heaven endowed him. It is the consequence and reward of hard
study, and above all of work, hard work.

You have been ambitious of like skill in the manipulation of words. Had
you not been, you would never have undertaken this study. You have
perceived that when you speak or write, words are your instruments. You
have wished to learn how to use them. Now for every idea you shall ever
have occasion to express await throngs of vocables, each presenting its
claims as a fit medium. These you must pass in instantaneous review, these
you must expertly appraise, out of these you must choose the words that
will best serve your purpose. With practice, you will make your selections
unconsciously. You will never, of course, quite attain the infallibility
of the dentist; for linguistic instruments are more numerous than dental,
and far more complex. But you will more and more nearly approximate the
ideal, will more and more nearly find that right expression has become
second nature with you.

All this is conditioned upon labor faithful and steadfast. Without labor
you will never be adept. At the outset of our study together we warned you
that, though we should gather the material and point the way, you yourself
must do the work. This book is not one to glance through. It is one to
dwell with, to toil with. It exacts much of you-makes you, for each page
you turn, pay with the sweat of your brain.

But, assuming that you have done your part, what have you gained? Without
answering this question at all fully, we may at this juncture engage in a
brief retrospect.

First of all, you have rid yourself of the notion that words are dead
things, unrealities worthy of no more than wooden and mechanical
employment. As much as anything else in the world, words are alive and
responsive, are fraught with unmeasured possibilities of good or ill.
You have taken due cognizance of the fact that words must be considered in
the aggregate as well as individually, and have reckoned with the pitfalls
and dangers as well as with the advantages of their use in combination.
But the basis of everything is a keener knowledge of words severally. You
have therefore come to study words with the zest and insight you exhibit
(or should exhibit) in studying men. Incidentally, you have acquired the
habit of looking up dictionary definitions, not merely to sa