social, business, and public life, the subject of correct speech should
receive more serious consideration than is usually given to it. It is
earnestly hoped that this volume will be of practical value to those who
are desirous of developing and improving their conversational powers.

Appreciative thanks are expressed to the Editors of the _Homiletic
Review_ for permission to reprint some of the extracts.

GRENVILLE KLEISER.

NEW YORK CITY,
MAY, 1916.


Boys flying kites haul in their white-wing'd birds:
You can't do that way when you're flying words.
"Careful with fire," is good advice we know;
"Careful with words," is ten times doubly so.
Thoughts unexpress'd may sometimes fall back dead,
But God Himself can't kill them once they're said!

--_Will Carleton._


The first duty of a man is to speak; that is his chief business in
this world; and talk, which is the harmonious speech of two or
more, is by far the most accessible of pleasures. It costs nothing;
it is all profit; it completes our education; it founds and fosters
our friendships; and it is by talk alone that we learn our period
and ourselves.