The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-06-14
The Dictionary as an Instructor.

mentioning that at the recent great
publishers trade sale i'm New York,
the books that were most in demand
and brought the best prices were
Webster's Dictionaries, from the fa-
nous Quarto to the neat and handy
pocket edition. This fact is good in
dication of the almost universal popu-
larity of these books, and of the grow
ing public demand for them. 1t inji-
Gates also fact of far greater impor-
tance, and that is the interest the peo-
pie are taking in the study of their
own language. This is encouraging
as there is no branch of education
that is now and has been so much
neglected as the common branches of
spelling and defining. 1t is often as
tonishing and grievous to see how
grossly ignorant are children and
youth, and even men and women, of
the photography, pronunciation and
meaning of ordinary words and
phrases. They cannot express their
thoughts for the want of words, and
often they express thoughts very diff
ferent 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 hear
The remedy for these evils is the
proper training in the study of words,
by the use of the Dictionary, and this
training should begin as soon as the
child can distinguish between one
word and another, and continue in-
definitely. The apparatus for this
study should, of course, be the most
complete and thorough to be had, and
this is abundantly supplied in Web
ster's Dictionaries, which are justly re-
cognized, wherever our language is
spoken, us the standard authority in
English. Parents and teachers can
in no other way so effectually or so
cheaply promote the educational iu-
tcrcsts of their children, when of
suitable age, as by putting in their
hands any one of Webster's School
Dictionaries, for daily use in connec.
ton with the study of their lessons
and by placing on the family center
table, or the teachers desk as the
authoritative guide and standard q
copy of the Unabridged.
The unabridged contains 5000 illus
trations, over 114,000 words in its vo.
cabularies, and 10, ,008 words and mean
ings not in any other Dictionary the
abridged editions comprise 1.-THE Pri
mary" which has the largest sale, and
which has some capital rules for
spelling. "The Common Schooln is
similar, but larger, with tables of
synonyms, &c. "The High School,"
still fuller, with many useful tables );
THE Academic" and "Counting-
house" for advanced schools and for
general home and business use. The
latter has some specially valuable COM
mercial and financial tables. The
little "Pocket" edition, with it's bright t
gilt edges and morocco binding, is
truly an invaluable pocket companion
1t contains more than $4,000 words,
rules for spelling, many authorizations,
words and phrases, proverbs, ETC., or
dinarily met with in the Greek, Latin
and Modern languages. Whether it
is convenient or not to have copies of
any of the other books of the series,
we certainly recommend that all
should possess a copy of the Pocket,
which, when not otherwise obtaina'
BILE, may be had by mail, by inclosing
Brakeman, Taylor d. Co., l3S and 14O
Grand Street, New York.