or an accurate knowledge of the words he reads. It
is not impossible to know "pretty nearly what it means" from the
context; but no master uses words without knowing exactly what they
mean. Certainty of meaning precedes frequency of use; and this
necessary confidence is gained from a study of the dictionary. In a
general way we know all the words of Macaulay's vocabulary; but the
average man uses only eight hundred of them. His knowledge of words is
no more than an indistinct, mumbling knowledge. To lift each word out
of its context, to make it a distinct, living entity, capable of
serving, the definition must be studied. Then the student knows just
what service the word is fitted for, and finds a pleasure in being
competent to command that service. The dictionary is a necessity to
the person who hopes to use words.

Study of Literature.

Yet the knowledge of words that the student derives from the
dictionary is not sufficient. When one hears an educated foreigner
speak, he detects little errors in his use of words,--errors which are
not the fault of definition, but errors in the idiomatic use of words.
This use cannot be learned from a dictionary, where words are studied
individually, but only by studying them in combination with other
words where the influence of one word upon another may be noted. There
is little difference in the size of a pile of stones, whether we say a
great pile of stones or a large pile of stones; but a great man is of
much more consequence than a large man. A dictionary could hardly have
told a foreigner this. A man may pursue or chase a robber, as the
author wishes; but he may not chase a course. Prepositions are
especially liable to be misused, and their correct use comes from a
study of literature, not of the dictionary. The nice and
discriminating refinements in the use of words are learned by careful
reading. When a phrase is met, such as "the steep and solitary eastern
heaven," where each word has been born to a new beauty; or this, "And
the sweet city with her dreaming spires," where the adjectives "sweet"
and "dreaming" have a richer content, they should be regarded with
great care and greeted with even more delight than words entirely new.
How to read that we may gain this complete mastery of words, Mr.
Ruskin has best told us in "Sesame and Lilies." Every person should
know "Of Kings' Treasuries" by reading and re-reading. Literature, the
way masters have used words, will furnish