and
bring the spelling of as many words as possible to conform with these
principles and with such analogies as seemed fairly well established.
But other dictionary-makers have set up their ideas against his,
and we have a conflict of authorities. If for any reason one finds
himself spelling a word differently from the world about him,
he begins to say, "Well, that is the spelling given in Worcester,
or the Century, or the Standard, or the new Oxford." So the word
"authority" looms big on the horizon; and we think so much about
authority, and about different authorities, that we forget
to look for principles, as Mr. Webster would have us do.

Another reason for neglecting rules and principles is that the lists of
exceptions are often so formidable that we get discouraged and exclaim,
"If nine tenths of the words I use every day are exceptions to the
rules, what is the use of the rules anyway!" Well, the words which
constitute that other tenth will aggregate in actual numbers far more
than the common words which form the chief part of everyday speech,
and as they are selected at random from a vastly larger number,
the only possible way to master them is by acquiring principles,
consciously or unconsciously, which will serve as a key to them.
Some people have the faculty of unconsciously formulating principles
from their everyday observations, but it is a slow process,
and many never acquire it unless it is taught them.

The spelling problem is not to learn how to spell nine tenths of
our words correctly. Nearly all of us can and do accomplish that.
The good speller must spell nine hundred and ninety-nine one
thousandths of his word correctly, which is quite another matter.
Some of us go even one figure higher.

Our first task is clearly to commit the common irregular words to memory.
How may we do that most easily? It is a huge task at best, but every
pound of life energy which we can save in doing it is so much gained for
higher efforts. We should strive to economize effort in this just as
the manufacturer tries to economize in the cost of making his goods.

In this particular matter, it seems to the present writer that makers
of modern spelling-books have committed a great blunder in mixing
indiscriminately regular words with irregular, and common words with
uncommon. Clearly we should memorize first the words we use most often,
and then take up those which we use less frequently. But the
superintendent of