od, there is happily a better
class, the aesthetic cultivation of which is such that those who belong
to it are anxious to preserve the purity of our vernacular and are
ashamed of all errors of speech in their daily conversations. For such
it will not be uninteresting to look over a number of errors,
principally of pronunciation, that are not formally laid down as such
in books, and which people, even many of the best educated, are
constantly committing, just because they have never had their
attention called to them. These errors are becoming more deeply rooted
every day and if not soon eradicated, it will not be many years before
our orthoepic standard will be overthrown as it was in England some
years ago.

Smart, one of the most celebrated of English orthoepists, in the
preface of his dictionary says: "The proprietors of Walker's
dictionary, finding it would slide entirely out of use unless it were
adapted to the present day, engaged me as a teacher of elocution,
known in London since Walker's time, to make the necessary changes." A
standard pronouncing dictionary is a work that involves an
extraordinary amount of labor and research in its compilation, and
exerts an influence almost autocratical. The possibility of its
becoming worthless in a short time is strange, especially when it is
not on account of any work claiming superiority, but merely because
error long persisted in finally becomes more authoritative than the
original exemplar. With little effort, however, we can discern the
causes. Persons are apt to acquire the pronunciation and use of the
greater number of words by imitation, rather than by study. With
confidence in the knowledge of the parent, teacher, minister,
physician and others, their examples are followed without ever
considering that they are often very fallible guides.

A complete dictionary is an immense volume, and to turn over its pages
with even a casual observation of each word, requires an amount of
time that few would feel like devoting to it; and yet this is the only
way in which a person can become _assured_ of the sanctioned
pronunciation and meaning of a great many words. If they would make it
an invariable rule to make memoranda of all the words they read or
hear spoken, about the orthoepy and import of which they are not
absolutely certain, and at their first leisure opportunity would
consult their chosen authority, it would not be long before the
majority of errors would be co