of a word, but what it _now_ is; nor can we be completely guided by
quotations from Shakspeare or Milton, or even from Addison or Johnson.
Language has undergone such changes, even within the last sixty or
seventy years, that many words, at that time considered pure, are now
obsolete; while others--of which the word "mob" is a specimen--formerly
slang, are now used by our best writers, and received, like pardoned
outlaws, into the body of respectable citizens.' The standard,
accordingly, to which the author refers in the work before us, is the
sense in which a word is used by the purest writers and most correct
speakers of our own days.

The synonyms are arranged or classed according to the parts of speech to
which they belong--namely, into particles, nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
The uses of all the words are well defined, and sufficiently illustrated
by examples; a table of contents and a complete index are also added,
rendering reference to any word as easy as looking for it in a
dictionary. The table of contents, indeed, will be found to serve most
of the purposes of a vocabulary of synonyms: a glance at it will
frequently give you all the words of similar signification to the
particular one for which you may happen to require an equivalent. From
the part of the book relating to _verbs_, we take the following; the
words under notice being, _To teach, instruct, inform, educate_:--

'Of these words, the first two are often used synonymously, but they
have also a distinct meaning. "Teaching," strictly speaking, when
distinguished from instruction, is applied to the practice of an art or
branch of knowledge: instruction, to the theory. A child is, correctly
speaking, _instructed_ in the grammar of a language, and _taught_ to
speak the language. Thus, teaching may be merely mechanical; while
"instruction" implies a degree of understanding in the pupil, as well as