THE COMMON SPEECH.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11529, 11 March 1903, Page 8

THE COMMON SPEECH.

•- The research of which The Century Di» "■- ---tionary and Cyclopedia and Atlas is tha <> fruit, was not directed to the study of ohlyu"-*, tlie rarer words in the language. The ,* common speech of the common people is full of words that called for careiul treat- -' ment in the Dictionary A man inuy sup* '" pose that he has no use for an elaborate -; dictionary because he does not want to ~ understand unusual words, or rare meanings •, of usual words, but if he adopts this point H] of view ha is assuming that he knows all t 'i there ,is to know about ordinary words. £ Take, for example, the familiar compound "steam-engine." The rough conception of < - a steam engine is that it is a machine that .' turns a wheel when the water in a boile? -.- is hot enough to yield steam. Yet a man will hardly take a trip to Sydney without " feeling some vague curiosity as to the dis- ? tinction between a double expansion and a triple expansion engine, between a highpressure cylinder and a low-pressure cylinder. A definition of tlie word -team- - s engine has not gone over all tho ground i- * professes to cover until it has made these matters plain to the reader's mind by th< - use of untechnical words and explanatory - diagrams. One may, therefore, well bi pardoned to wonder not that "The Ccn« " tury" is so large, but that it is not larger;; amazement not that five hundred'upecialists were employed in making the book, but that the number was hot immensely greater. To teachers "Tho Century" is peculiarly 1 useful. They are beset by tlie eager questions of children, and if, when they are questioned, they use the* Dictionary, or, better still, It the children use it for themselww, every question leads the child to new knowledge. "Tho Times" offer to sell the work a* over 40 j»er cent, discount on the published price (full details of which are given in . an advertisement on page 3 of this issue), , is only open for a limited period. '.