TABLE OF CONTENTS. EXPLANATORY PREFACE Pages iii.-vi. ADDITIONAL DIRECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS..Pages 7, 13, 14, 17, 20, 32–3, 141–2, 150, 167-8 WORDS ALIKE IN SOUND, BUT UNLIKE IN SPELLING AND SIGNIFICATION... Pages 142–149 LETTERS, WORDS, AND SENTENCES; PAUSES, AND OTHER MARKS, USED IN . Pages 167, 168 Errata.-On page 64, first column, "crave" should be brake; and "brave," in fourth column, should be under the heading of “ADJ., N., and V." These will be corrected in a second edition. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, by HARPER AND BROTHERS, THE present work is designed to carry out the general principles contained in the "Primary Speller," although some of the features of that work have given place in this to others of more importance to the advanced scholar, and to such exercises as better adapt the book to the wants of those schools in which only one Speller is used. As in the "Primary Speller," we have adopted here, mainly, the orthography and pronunciation of Dr. Webster, as contained in the University edition of his Dictionary, edited by Prof. Goodrich. With only a few exceptions, this edition does not differ materially in these particulars from the valuable work of Dr. Worcester. In accordance with both Webster and Worcester, we have designated the sound of u, when preceded by r in the same syllable, as equivalent to oo, so that rûle is pronounced rool, and not rule; although we believe growing usage favors the long sound of u in all words of this class, the same as in mule, tune, etc. We would have preferred, in accordance with Johnson, and the early editions of Webster, to give to long u but one sound, as heard in müte, but the present weight of authority seems to be against it. In his system of syllabication, Webster aimed to designate the primitive word in all derivative forms: hence he has bak'er, mak'er, rid'er, writ'er, etc., instead of baʼker, ma'ker, ri'der, wri'ter, as given by Walker, Worcester, and others. We see no reason to believe that Webster designed his system of syllabication to be carried out in actual oral spelling, although we believe it has been rigidly adhered to in most of the Spelling-books based upon his system of orthography. We have generally endeavored to give that division of words into syllables which best represents their actual syllabication in spoken language, but we have retained the system of Webster when it is not too plainly inconsistent with this usage. To avoid the anomaly of giving to c the sound of s, when it follows a vowel in the same syllable, we have written ve ra'ci ty, ně'ces sa ry, so li'ci tude, etc., instead of ve rac'i ty, nec'es sa ry, so lic'i tude, as given by Webster. In the marks indicating the sounds of the letters, we have aimed to be sufficiently full and minute where either teacher or pupil could possibly need a guide, but we have not thought it desirable to encumber the text with them where they would be useless, as in the hundreds of cases of c sounded like k, and of s like z, in which the pupil could scarcely, by any possibility, avoid giving the correct sounds. The following are the leading points in which the present work differs essentially from other Spelling-books. I. THE REGULAR SPELLING LESSONS. In the regular spelling lessons, which occupy the larger portion of the work, not only are the words arranged in strict accordance with their accented vowel sounds, but they are further classified under the heads of the different parts of speech to which they belong; and a word which may be used in two or more parts of speech is found under its appropriate heading. Some of the advantages of this latter mode of arrangement are the following: By habitually associating the words with the offices which they perform in written or spoken language, pupils will necessarily gain some considerable knowledge of their meaning and uses; and if, in connection with the spelling lessons, the teacher will frequently direct attention to the definitions of the several parts of speech, not only will this knowledge of words be greatly extended, but the rudimentary principles of English Grammar also will be easily acquired. Where the same words are classed as belonging to two parts of speech-as being both "nouns and verbs," or "adjectives and nouns,' " for example-it would be well for the teacher to accustom the pupils to form sentences showing their use in both senses, as illustrated in some of the early lessons. II. WORDS USUALLY CALLED SYNONYMS. We have taken a large number of the so-called "synonyms" found in our language, |