we find before us a purely practical problem,
that of leading the student through the maze of a new science and teaching
him the skill of an old art, exemplified in a long line of masters.

By way of preface we may say that the mastery of the English language
(or any language) is almost the task of a lifetime. A few easy lessons
will have no effect. We must form a habit of language study that will
grow upon us as we grow older, and little by little, but never by leaps,
shall we mount up to the full expression of all that is in us.

WORD-STUDY

INTRODUCTION

THE STUDY OF SPELLING.

The mastery of English spelling is a serious under-taking. In the first
place, we must actually memorize from one to three thousand words which are
spelled in more or less irregular ways. The best that can be done with
these words is to classify them as much as possible and suggest methods of
association which will aid the memory. But after all, the drudgery of
memorizing must be gone through with.

Again, those words called homonyms, which are pronounced alike but spelled
differently, can be studied only in connection with their meaning, since
the meaning and grammatical use in the sentence is our only key to their
form. So we have to go considerably beyond the mere mechanical association
of letters.

Besides the two or three thousand common irregular words, the dictionary
contains something over two hundred thousand other words. Of course no one
of us can possibly have occasion to use all of those words; but at the same
time, every one of us may sooner or later have occasion to use any one of
them. As we cannot tell before hand what ones we shall need, we should be
prepared to write any or all of them upon occasion. Of course we may refer
to the dictionary; but this is not always, or indeed very often, possible.
It would obviously be of immense advantage to us if we could find a key to
the spelling of these numerous but infrequently used words.

The first duty of the instructor in spelling should be to provide such
a key. We would suppose, off-hand, that the three hundred thousand
school-teachers in the United States would do this immediately and
without suggestion--certainly that the writers of school-books would.
But many things have stood in the way. It is only within a few years,
comparatively speaking, that our language has become at all fixed in its
spelling. Noah Webster did a great deal to establish principles,