would be no objection to its revival, but for its modern allegiance to slang."-De Vere.

In the interest of justice, we can't do without it.

By. This word is more frequently misused than any other word in the language. It is often misused for with, and sometimes for from and for.

Before the agent or doer we properly use by; before the instrument or means, with; as, "No wonder Beethoven was unhappy, afflicted as he was by [with] such librettists." "The place was filled by [with] ladies and gentlemen." "The Phi Beta Kappa ode to 'The Republic' is distinguished by [for] dignity of tone and . . . by [for] . . . elevation of style."-N. Y. Tribune.

'Of all bad things by [with] which mankind are cursed, Their own bad tempers surely are the worst."

Cumberland.

"We are sorry to see that R. talks of replacing his handbook by [with] a manual.” “Sitting Bull's head was adorned by [with] a number of feathers." "At length [last] the queen chose a king and the ball ended by [with] a waltz."

-N. Y. Sun.

"There may have been some wriggling, but too minute to be detected by [with] the naked eye." "When undisturbed, they seek a bit of wood, and catching it by [with] their horny legs," etc.

"A gentleman by the name of Hinkley."-N. Y. Times.

O no! You mean, "A gentleman of the name of Hinkley." This is English, you know.-N. Y. Sun.

One may say, I know no one of the name of Brown," or "I know no one by the name of Brown," but the meaning is very different. One might know a man of the name of Brown, but know him by the name of Smith; that is,

the man's name might be really Brown though supposed to be Smith.

We say, then, "I know a man of the name of Brown," when we mean that we know a man whose name is Brown.

"Fought fire by [with] wine."-Headline, N. Y. Sun, June 28, 1895.

Calamity. This word is sometimes misused by careless writers in the sense of loss, whereas properly it should be used in an abstract sense, meaning source of misery, or of loss. To call a loss a calamity is as absurd as it would be to call a loss an inundation, a famine, or a plague. Calamities are causes, losses are results.

The following is a typical sentence from the pen of one of whom it has been good-naturedly said, 66 Poor man, he meant what he said, but he didn't know what he meant.'

""

"The weaker spirit of his wife dared scarcely offer [scarcely dared to offer] her tributary [?] sympathy of tears and sighs at their mutual [common] calamity [loss]."

What kind of sympathy is tributary sympathy? We have heard of tributary lands and tributary streams, but never before of tributary sympathy. And then the locution, "To offer sympathy at a calamity"-what does it mean?

The only advantage of reading Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson forward instead of backward is, that in reading him forward the syntax is better.

Calculate. "This word," says Hodgson, "bears nowadays a heavy load of ill-packed meanings, being used in Chambers's History of English Literature for likely, and in the following three passages for fit, able, and suited."

"He appeared calculated [fit?] for no other purpose than to augment the number of victims."

"It is not every painter who [that] is calculated [able] to show to so much advantage."

'He purposes to write the lives of certain of the English poets a task for which he is most admirably calculated" [suited or qualified].

This making of calculate a sort of "maid of all work" is certainly not to be commended. The word means, To ascertain by computation; to reckon; to estimate; and, say some of the purists, it never means, when properly used, anything else. Cobbett, however, who is accounted one of the masters of English, says, To her whose great example is so well calculated to inspire," etc.; and again, "The first two or three sentences are well calculated," etc.

Calculate is sometimes vulgarly used for intend, purpose, expect; as, "He calculates to get off to-morrow."

Caliber. This word is sometimes used very absurdly ; as, "Brown's Essays are of a much higher caliber than Smith's." It is plain that the proper word to use here is order.

Calligraphy. This word is not, as many seem to think, a synonym of handwriting. It means the art of writing beautifully. A scrawl, therefore, can not properly be called calligraphy.

Cant. Cant is a kind of affectation; affectation is an effort to sail under false colors; an effort to sail under false colors is a kind of falsehood; and falsehood is a term of Latin origin that we often use instead of the stronger Saxon

term LIE.

"Who is not familiar," writes Dr. William Matthews, "with scores of pet phrases and cant terms which [that] are repeated at this day apparently without a thought of

their meaning? Who ever attended a missionary meeting without hearing 'the Macedonian cry,' and an account of 'some little interest,' and fields white for the harvest'? Who is not weary of the ding-dong of 'our Zion,' and the solecism of 'in our midst'; and who does not long for a verbal millennium when Christians shall no longer 'feel to take' and 'grant to give'?"

"How much I regret," says Coleridge, "that so many religious persons of the present day think it necessary to adopt a certain cant of manner and phraseology [and of tone of voice] as a token to each other [one another]! They improve this and that text, and they must do so and so in a prayerful way; and so on."

ond

"Cant is itself properly a double-distilled lie-the secpower of a lie.”—Carlyle.

Capable. This word is often improperly used in a passive sense, thus:

66

Anything capable [susceptible] of being salified is salifiable."-Standard Dictionary.

“Anything capable [susceptible] of being saved or restored is salvable."-Standard Dictionary.

“We beg [leave] to repeat that we require [need ?] more articles capable [susceptible] of pictorial illustration."Phrenological Journal.

Capacity. See ABILITY.

Caption. This word is often used for heading, but, thus used, it is condemned by careful writers. The true meaning of caption is a seizure, an arrest. It does not come from a Latin word meaning a head, but from a Latin word meaning to seize.

Caret. Cobbett writes of the caret to his son: 66 The last thing I shall mention under this head is the caret [^], which is used to point upward to a part which [that] has

been omitted, and which [that] is inserted between the line where the caret is placed and the line above it. Things should be called by their right names, and this should be I called the blunder-mark. I would have you, my dear James, scorn the use of the thing. Think before you write; let it be your custom to write correctly and in a plain hand. Be as careful that neatness, grammar, and sense prevail when you write to a blacksmith about shoeing a horse as when you write on the most important subjects. Habit is powerful in all cases; but its power in this case is truly wonderful. When you write, bear constantly in mind that some one is to read and to understand what you write. This will make your handwriting and also your meaning plain. Far, I hope, from my dear James will be the ridiculous, the contemptible, affectation of writing in a slovenly or illegible hand, or that of signing his name otherwise tha in plain letters."

Carnival. A feast celebrated in Roman Catholic coun tries for a few days immediately before Lent. The literal meaning of the word is farewell to flesh.

A correspondent of the N. Y. Sun uses this word thus: "A great trotting carnival [= farewell to flesh] took place here to-day. There were five events [races] on the programme, exclusive of a trial of speed by Maud S. [the speed of Maud S.]."

Carry. See BRING.

Case. Many persons of considerable culture continually make mistakes in conversation in the use of the cases, and we sometimes meet with gross errors of this kind in the writings of authors of repute. Witness the following: "And everybody is to know him except I."-George Meredith in The Tragic Comedies, Eng. ed., vol. i, p. 33. "Let's you and I go": say, me. We can not say, Let I