Grenville Kleiser, who has devoted years of his diligent life to imparting the art of correct expression in speech and writing, has provided many aids for those who would know not merely what to say, but how to say it.  He has taught also what the great Holmes taught, that language is a temple in which the human soul is enshrined, and that it grows out of life—­out of its joys and its sorrows, its burdens and its necessities.  To him, as well as to the writer, the deep strong voice of man and the low sweet voice of woman are never heard at finer advantage than in the earnest but mellow tones of familiar speech.  In the present volume Mr. Kleiser furnishes an additional and an exceptional aid for those who would have a mint of phrases at their command from which to draw when in need of the golden mean for expressing thought.  Few indeed are the books fitted to-day for the purpose of imparting this knowledge, yet two centuries ago phrase-books were esteemed as supplements to the dictionaries, and have not by any manner of means lost their value.  The guide to familiar quotations, the index to similes, the grammars, the readers, the machine-made letter-writer of mechanically perfect letters of congratulation or condolence—­none are sententious enough to supply the need.  By the compilation of this praxis, Mr. Kleiser has not only supplied it, but has furnished a means for the increase of one’s vocabulary by practical methods.  There are thousands of persons who may profit by the systematic study of such a book as this if they will familiarize themselves with the author’s purpose by a careful reading of the preliminary pages of his book.  To speak in public pleasingly and readily and to read well are accomplishments acquired only after many days, weeks even, of practise.

Foreigners sometimes reproach us for the asperity and discordance of our speech, and in general, this reproach is just, for there are many persons who do scanty justice to the vowel-elements of our language.  Although these elements constitute its music they are continually mistreated.  We flirt with and pirouette around them constantly.  If it were not so, English would be found full of beauty and harmony of sound.  Familiar with the maxim, “Take care of the vowels and the consonants will take care of themselves,”—­a maxim that when put into practise has frequently led to the breaking-down of vowel values—­the writer feels that the common custom of allowing “the consonants to take care of themselves” is pernicious.  It leads to suppression or to imperfect utterance, and thus produces indistinct articulation.