States incline, like the people of southern Europe, to throw the accent toward the end of the word, and thus, like all nations that use that accentuation, bring out all the syllables. This we observe very commonly in the comparative Northern and Southern pronunciation of proper names. I might exemplify by citing familiar instances; but, lest that should seem invidious, it may suffice to say that, not to mention more important changes, many a Northern member of Congress goes to Washington a dactyl or a trochee, and comes home an amphibrach or an iambus. Why or how external physical causes, as climate and modes of life, should affect pronunciation, we can not say; but it is evident that material influences of some sort are producing a change in our bodily constitution, and we are fast acquiring a distinct national Anglo-American type. That the delicate organs of articulation should participate in such tendencies is altogether natural; and the operation of the causes which give rise to them is palpable even in our handwriting, which, if not uniform with itself, is generally, nevertheless, so unlike common English script as to be readily distinguished from it.

...

"To the joint operation, then, of these two causesuniversal reading and climatic influences—we must ascribe our habit of dwelling upon vowel and diphthongal sounds, or of drawling, if that term is insisted upon. . . . But it is often noticed by foreigners as both making us more readily understood by them when speaking our own tongue, and as connected with a flexibility of organ, which enables us to acquire a better pronunciation of other languages than is usual with Englishmen. In any case, as, in spite of the old adage, speech is given us that we may make ourselves understood, our drawling, however prolonged, is preferable to the nauseous, foggy, mumbling thickness of articulation

which characterizes the cockney, and is not unfrequently affected by Englishmen of a better class."-George P. Marsh.

Bryant's Prohibited Words. See INDEX EXPURGA

TORIUS.

But. This word is misused in various ways. "I do not doubt but he will be here": read, doubt that. "I should not wonder but": read, if. “I have no doubt but that he will go": suppress but. "I do not doubt but that it is true" suppress but. "There can be no doubt but that the burglary is the work of professional cracksmen.”N. Y. Herald. Doubt that, and not but that. "A careful canvass leaves no doubt but that the nomination," etc.: suppress but. "There is no reasonable doubt but that it is all it professes to be": suppress but. "The mind no sooner entertains any proposition but it presently hastens," etc. read, than. "No other resource but this was allowed him": read, than.

There are sentences in which but is used correctly with that: as, "I have no fear but that he will come"; meaning, I am sure he will come. "I have no fear that he will come," it will be seen, means the contrary of what the sentence means with the but. "I have no fear that he will not come is, however, a form to be preferred. See WHAT.

Bulk. Though sanctioned by the dictionaries, the use of this word in the sense of the main mass, the majority, the greater part, is not considered by careful writers as being good diction.

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There was a severe frost in Manitoba, but although the bulk [greater part] of the wheat is still uncut, it was not damaged."

Bully. "The term is such good old English that there

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, "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.

Calumniate. See ASPERSE.

Can.
Cant.

See MAY.

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