PREFACE.
In publishing a new Spelling-Book, the Author considers it a duty to state, briefly, the reasons which have induced him to add another Elementary School Book to the extensive list already before the public.
For many years, parents and teachers have felt the necessity of giving to children, during the earliest part of their education, some just idea of the signification of words, and to meet that demand, Spelling-Books have been published with columns of synonyms, where one word is used to define another; but as those works failed to satisfy the public desire, Class-Books in Etymology, Analyzers, &c., in which the prefixes and suffixes are classified and defined, have been published to succeed the Spelling-Book.
Notwithstanding this multiplication of books, there has been a continual call for some single work, containing such a classification as would furnish an easy method of teaching the correct spelling and pronunciation, and, at the same time, the true import of words.
In the opinion of many of the most competent judges—eminent teachers, who have been consulted by the Author—The Student’s Speller contains the classification which has been so long and urgently called for, and is now first presented to the public.
Notwithstanding the remarkable simplicity of this classification, it is such that by learning to spell and define five thousand words, the pupil will obtain a knowledge of the spelling and signification of about fifteen thousand. The correctness of this statement will be readily admitted by any one who will turn to the sixty-fourth page, and consider the following suggestions.
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