A COPIOUS INTRODUCTION TO THE VARIOUS USES OF THE WORK, WITH BY J. WALKER, AUTHOR OF THE "CRITICAL PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY," &C. A New and Revised Edition. PHILADELPHIA: LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON. 1859. T. NEWTON KURTZ, No.151WESTPRATT ST. BALTIMORE. AMONG the various attempts to facilitate the orthography and pronunciation of the English language, it is not a little surprising that the method here adopted should have been either totally overlooked or neglected. A Rhyming Dictionary in a living language, for the purposes of poetry, seems no very unnatural or useless production, and imperfect sketches of such a work have already been given us by Poole and Bysshe; but no one has hitherto thought of making a dictionary of terminations subservient to the art of spelling and pronouncing. The more obvious use of a work of this kind was perhaps an obstacle to the completion of it, and its latent, though more useful qualities, were by this means unobserved. A mere rhyming dictionary was looked on either as a bauble for school-boys, or a resource for poetasters; and the nobler ends of pointing out the analogy of orthography and pronunciation, like many other advantages, were overlooked in the insignificancy and puerility of the means. Johnson's Dictionary is scarcely more valuable for so nicely tracing the various and almost vanishing shades of the same word, than for furnishing us with so copious a collection of nearly similar words of a different form. Those who understand the harmony of prose, pay a cheerful tribute to Dr. Johnson on this account, as he admits them to a more easy and extensive view of the powers of the language, than can possibly be suggested by the memory alone; and by this means assists that delicacy of choice, on which the precision and harmony of expression so essentially depend. This advantage, which perhaps was not foreseen by Dr. Johnson himself, was no more than a necessary, though not an obvious, consequence of so copious and perfect a distribution of the language into its constituent parts; and without the vanity of pretending to a parallel, it may naturally be presumed, that an arrangement, which is perfectly new, may possibly produce advantages which were entirely unnoticed before this arrangement was actually drawn out; for experience furnishes us with a variety of instances of unexpected improvements arising from new, (iii) |