This book is not one to glance through. It is one to
dwell with, to toil with. It exacts much of you-makes you, for each page
you turn, pay with the sweat of your brain.
But, assuming that you have done your part, what have you gained? Without
answering this question at all fully, we may at this juncture engage in a
brief retrospect.
First of all, you have rid yourself of the notion that words are dead
things, unrealities worthy of no more than wooden and mechanical
employment. As much as anything else in the world, words are alive and
responsive, are fraught with unmeasured possibilities of good or ill.
You have taken due cognizance of the fact that words must be considered in
the aggregate as well as individually, and have reckoned with the pitfalls
and dangers as well as with the advantages of their use in combination.
But the basis of everything is a keener knowledge of words severally. You
have therefore come to study words with the zest and insight you exhibit
(or should exhibit) in studying men. Incidentally, you have acquired the
habit of looking up dictionary definitions, not merely to satisfy a
present need, but also to add permanently to your linguistic resources.
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