Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by WILLIAM SWINTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. 24916 R. CRAIGHEAD, 81, 83, and 85 Centre Street. L'ENVOI. THESE pages present some fifteen hundred illustrations of the Poetry, History and Wisdom of Words. For it has dawned on the thought of modern times that Language, too, is a living organism. Language is indeed the grand spiritual fact of humanity. In speech man incarnates himself. It paints—as I have elsewhere said-humanity, its thoughts, struggles, longings: paints them on a canvas of breath, in the colors of life. Some of the themes of the Rambles I have already impinged on in a series of papers in PUTNAM'S MONTHLY for 1854. These papers I have not incorporated in the present volume. I may mention, though, that the whole book was written half-a-dozen years ago; and how often does one find after that lapse of time that his pages have but a biographic significance ! These Rambles among Words have a reference to all previous contributions to the illustration of the English Language. Of these the one that has attained most popularity is the little volume of Mr. Trench on the "Study of Words." We are all indebted to Mr. Trench for his pleasant volume. It is to be |