"Now, in faith, Gratiano,

You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief; An 'twere to me, I would [should] be mad at it." Merchant of Venice. "And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities."—Acts xxvi, 11.

Mad, in the sense of angry, is less used now than formerly, and is least used in this sense by those who are accounted careful speakers. "He was very angry" is certainly preferable to " He was very mad." In this sense mad may be said to be archaic.

Make a visit. We do not make visits; we pay them. “Make a visit,” according to Dr. Hall, whatever it once was, is no longer English.

Malaria. This word is not the name of a disease, as many persons seem to think, but of the cause of a disease, or perhaps of diseases. We do not suffer from malaria, but from the effects of malaria, which is a noxious exhalation, usually from marshy districts.

Marry. There has been some discussion, at one time and another, with regard to the use of this word. Is John Jones married to Sally Brown or with Sally Brown, or are they married to each other? Inasmuch as the woman loses her name in that of the man she is wedded to, and becomes a member of his family, not he of hers-inasmuch as, with few exceptions, it is her life that is merged in his-it would seem that, properly, Sally Brown is married to John Jones, and that this would be the proper way to make the announcement of their having been wedded, and not John Jones to Sally Brown.

There is also a difference of opinion as to whether the active or the passive form is preferable in referring to a person's wedded state. In speaking definitely of the act of

marriage the passive form is necessarily used with reference to either spouse. “John Jones was married to Sally Brown on December 1, 1881"; not "John Jones married Sally Brown on such a date, for (unless they were Quakers) some third person married him to her and her to him. But, in speaking definitely of the fact of marriage, the active form is a matter of course. Whom did John Jones marry?" "He married Sally Brown." "John Jones, when he had sown his wild oats, married [married himself, as the French say] and settled down." Got married is a vulgarism.

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May. In the sense of can, may, in a negative clause, has become obsolete. Though we may say a horse, we may not say a ox." The first may here is permissible; not however, the second, which should be can.

So,

Can always conveys the idea of ability; hence, when it is a question of simple permission, may should be used. "May I-not can I-have an apple?"

Meat. At the table we ask for and offer beef, mutton, veal, steak, turkey, duck, etc., and do not ask for nor offer meat, which, to say the least, is very inelegant. "Will you have [not take] another piece of beef [not of the beef]?" not, "Will you have another piece of meat?"

Memorandum. The plural is memoranda, except when the singular means a book; then the plural is memorandums.

Mere. This word is not infrequently misplaced, and sometimes, as in the following sentence, in consequence of being misplaced, it is changed to an adverb: "It is true of men as of God, that words merely meet with no response." What the writer evidently intended to say is, that mere words meet with no response.

The diction of none but painstakers is ever good.

Merely. Sometimes misused for simply. Merely means only, solely; as, "We went merely (not simply) out of curiosity." "What you tell me is simply astounding."

Metaphor. An implied comparison is called a metaphor; it is a more terse form of expression than the simile. Take, for example, this sentence from Spencer's Philosophy of Style: "As, in passing through the crystal, beams of white light are decomposed into the colors of the rainbow, so, in traversing the soul of the poet, the colorless rays of truth are transformed into brightly tinted poetry." Expressed in metaphors, this becomes: "The white light of truth, in traversing the many-sided, transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry."

Worcester's definition of a metaphor is: "A figure of speech founded on the resemblance which [that] one object is supposed to bear, in some respect, to another, or a figure by which a word is transferred from a subject to which it properly belongs to another, in such a manner that a comparison is implied, though not formally expressed; a comparison or simile comprised in a word; as, 'Thy word is a lamp to my feet.'" A metaphor differs from a simile in being expressed without any sign of comparison; thus, "the silver moon is a metaphor; “the moon is bright as silver” is a simile. Examples:

"

"But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,

Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.”
"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased-
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow?"
'At length Erasmus
Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age,

And drove those holy Vandals off the stage." "Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent."

Metonymy. The rhetorical figure that puts the effect for the cause, the cause for the effect, the container for the thing contained, the sign, or symbol, for the thing signified, or the instrument for the agent, is called metonymy.

"One very common species of metonymy is when the badge is put for the office. Thus we say the miter for the priesthood; the crown for royalty; for military occupation we say the sword; and for the literary professions—those especially of theology, law, and physic-the common expression is the gown."-Campbell.

Dr. Quackenbos, in his Course of Composition and Rhetoric, says: "Metonymy is the exchange of names between things related. It is founded, not on resemblance, but on the relation of (1) Cause and effect; as, 'They have Moses and the prophets'-i. e., their writings; 'Gray hairs should be respected '-i. e., old age. (2) Progenitor and posterity; as, 'Hear, O Israel !'-i. e., descendants of Israel. (3) Subject and attribute; as, 'Youth and beauty shall be laid in dust '—i. e., the young and beautiful. (4) Place and inhabitant; as, 'What land is so barbarous as to allow this injustice?'-i. e., what people. (5) Container and thing contained; as, 'Our ships next opened fire '-i. e., our sailors. (6) Sign and thing signified; as, 'The scepter shall not depart from Judah'—i. e., kingly power. (7) Material and thing made of it; as, 'His steel gleamed on high '—i. e., his sword."

'Petitions having proved unsuccessful, it was determined to approach the throne more boldly.”

Middling. Sometimes misused for tolerably or fairly. Middling can not properly be used as an adverb, hence we can not say a thing is “middling good," or that a thing was middling well" done.

Midst, The. See IN OUR MIDST.

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Mighty. Often used when very would be the proper word to use. Such expressions as mighty hard, mighty pretty, mighty well, and the like are not used by the careful. Mind. This word is often inelegantly, if not absolutely incorrectly, used in the sense of obey. To mind is to attend to a thing so that it may not be forgotten. We should say, 'Will you obey me?" not "Will you mind me?" "Mind what I say, and be sure you obey me." Mind-Capricious. Lord Salisbury's mind is capricious."-Tribune. See EQUANIMITY OF MIND.

Misplaced Clauses. In writing and speaking, it is as important to give each clause its proper place as it is to place the words properly. The following are a few in"All these cirstances of misplaced clauses and adjuncts: cumstances brought close to us a state of things which [that] we never thought to have witnessed [to witness] in peaceful England. In the sister island, indeed, we had read of such horrors, but now they were brought home to our very household hearth."-Swift. Better: "We had read, indeed, of such horrors occurring in the sister island," etc.

"I shall have a comedy for you, in a season or two at farthest, that I believe will be worth your acceptance."Goldsmith. Bettered: In a season or two at farthest, I shall have a comedy for you that I believe will be worth your acceptance."

"

“This orthography is regarded as normal in England.” What the writer intended was, in England as normal”– a very different thought.

"The Normal School is a commodious building capable of accommodating three hundred students four stories high."

"The Moor, seizing a bolster boiling over with jealousy, smothers her."

rage and