e final _e_ in _wherefore_, _therefore_, &c.
_Simile_ is terminated with a _y_; the imperfect of the verbs _to milk_,
_to ask_, etc., is spelled with a _t_; _whereat_ loses its second _e_,
and _although_ is deprived of its last three letters. To his poem of
"Guidone and Lucia" has been added this final verse:--

"The sire had earned with gold his son's release
And led him home; at home he died in peace.
His soul was with Lucia, and he praid
To meet again soon, soon, that happier maid.
This wish was granted, for the Powers above
Abound in mercy and delight in love."

And to this verse is appended the following note: "If the pret. and
partic. of _lay_ is _laid_, of _say_, _said_, that of _pray_ must be
_praid_. We want a lexiconomist."

In his lines entitled "New Style," which are a burlesque on Wordsworth,
Landor introduces a new verse:--

"Some one (I might have asked her who)
Has given her a locket;
I, more considerate, brought her two
Potatoes in each pocket."

Landor has been accused of an unwarrantable dislike to the manufacture
of words; but so far from true is this, that I have known him to indulge
with great felicity in words of his own coining, when conversation
chanced to take a humorous turn. He makes Sam. Johnson say that "all
words are good which come when they are wanted; all which come when they
are not wanted should be dismissed." Tooke, in the same conversation,
cites Cicero as one who, not contented with new spellings, created new
words; but Tooke further declares, that "only one valuable word has been
received into our language since my birth, or perhaps since yours. I
have lately heard _appreciate_ for _estimate_." To which Johnson
replies: "Words taken from the French should be amenable, in their
spelling, to English laws and regulations. _Appreciate_ is a good and
useful one; it signifies more than _estimate_ or _value_; it implies 'to
value justly.'"

Taking up one day Dean Trench's excellent little book on "The Study of
Words," which lay on my table, Landor expressed a desire to read it. He
brought it back not long afterward, enriched with notes, and declared
himself to have been much pleased with the manner in which the Dean had
treated a subject so deeply interesting to himself. I have singled out a
few of these notes, that student of etymology may read the criticisms of
so able a man. Dean Trench is taken to task for a misuse of _every
where