The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-05-17
The Dictionary as an Instructor,

We notice as a matter well worth mentioning.
that at the recent great publishers trade sale in
New York, the books that were most in demand
and brought the best prices were Webster's Die
tionaries, from the famous Quarto to the neat and
handy pocket edition. This fact Is a good indica-
ton of the almost universal popularity of these
books. and of the growing public demand for them
1t indicates also a fact offar greater Importance,
and that is the interest the people are taking in
the study Of their own language. This is encour-
aging, as there is no branch of education that is
now and has been SO much neglected as the COM
mon branches of SPELLING and DEFINING. It is
often astonishing and grievous TO see now grossly
ignorant are children and youth, and even men
and women, of the orthogIaphy, pronunciation
and meaning Of Ordinary words and phrases. They
cannot express thoughts very different from what
they intend, because they do not understand the
words they employ. And very frequently, from
the same cause, they take no idea, or wrong ideas,
from what they read or heear.
The remedy for these evils is the proper train
ing in the study of words, by the use of the Die
tionary, and this training should begin as soon as
the child can distinguish between one word and
another, and continue indefinitely. The appara-
tus for this study should. of course, be the most
complete and thorough to be had. and this is a
bundantly supplied in Webster's Dictionaries,
which are justly recognized, wherever our Ian
guage is spoken, as the standard authority in Eng
lish. Parents and teachers can in no other way so
cffectually or SO .cheaply promote the educational
interests of their children, when of suitable age, as
by putting in their hands any one Of Webster's
School Dictionaries, for daily use In connection
with the study of their lessons, and by placing on
the family center table, or the teachers desk as
the authoritative guide and standard, a copy Of
the Unabridged.
The unabridged contains 5000 illustrations, over
II4,OOO words in its vocabularles, and 10000 words
and meanings not in any other Dictionary; the
abridged editions comprise "The Primary, which
has the largest sale, and which has some capital
rules for spelling. 1.-THE Common School" is SINH
lar, but larger, with tables of synonyms, &C. "The
High School, !" still fuller, with many useful tables;
'The Academic" and Counting house'' for ad-
vanced schools and for general home and business
use. The latter has some specially valuable COM
mercial and financial tables. The little Pocket
edition, with its bright gilt edges and morocco
binding, is truly an invaluable pocket compan-
ion. 1t contains more than Il 5000 words, rules for
spelling, many authorizations, words and phrases,
proverbs, etc., ordinarily met with in the Greek,
Latin and Modern languages. Whether 1t is con-
venient or not to have copies of any of the other
books OF the series, we certainly recommend that
all should possess o copy of the Pocket, which.
when not otherwise obtainable, may be had by
mail. by inclosing sl.OO to the publishers, MEssRs.
IvIsoN, KEN Taylor Co., l3S and 40
Grand Street, New York.