should resort to constant practise by doing so aloud in private, or
preferably, in the presence of such persons as know good reading when they
hear it and are masters of the melody of sounds. It was Dean Swift's
belief that the common fluency of speech in many men and most women was
due to scarcity of matter and scarcity of words. He claimed that a master
of language possessed a mind full of ideas, and that before speaking, such
a mind paused to select the choice word--the phrase best suited to the
occasion. "Common speakers," he said, "have only one set of ideas, and one
set of words to clothe them in," and these are always ready on the lips.
Because he holds the Dean's view sound to-day, the writer will venture to
warn the readers of this book against a habit that, growing far too common
among us, should be checked, and this is the iteration and reiteration in
conversation of "the battered, stale, and trite" phrases, the like of
which were credited by the worthy Dean to the women of his time.

Human thought elaborates itself with the progress of intelligence. Speech
is the harvest of thought, and the relation which exists between words and
the mouths that speak them must be carefully observed. Just as nothing is
more beautiful than a word fitly spoken, so nothing is rarer than the use
of a word in its exact meaning. There is a tendency to overwork both words
and phrases that is not restricted to any particular class. The learned
sin in this respect even as do the ignorant, and the practise spreads
until it becomes an epidemic. The epidemic word with us yesterday was
unquestionably "conscription"; several months ago it was "preparedness."
Before then "efficiency" was heard on every side and succeeded in
superseding "vocational teaching," only to be displaced in turn by "life
extension" activities. "Safety-first" had a long run which was brought
almost to abrupt end by "strict accountability," but these are mere
reflections of our cosmopolitan life and activities. There are others that
stand out as indicators of brain-weariness. These are most frequently met