Examine History, for it is "Philosophy teaching by Experience."
Carlyle
"Truth comes down to us from the past, as gold is washed down
from the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, in minute but precious
particles--the débris of the centuries."
Words--The Tools of Personal Power and Success--
The Secrets of Their Most Effective Use
REPOSING in the contents of this Dictionary is a huge reservoir of
power--power so potent as to provide an instrument for attaining
success in life to anyone who will make use of it. For herein lie the
basic tools by which man has carved out his present modicum of civiliza-
tion--the tools of expression and of communication.
Down through the ages, from the very beginning of civilization to and
within the present time, those who have best understood and practiced
the use of these tools have wielded powerful influence upon their fellow
men and have themselves reaped great rewards.
The Power of Expression
Expression is man's most potent instrument of progress. His success
is inevitably measured or limited by his ability to communicate his
thoughts to others, usually through the medium either of speaking or of
writing.
One's potential equipment for expression may be likened unto a wonder-
machine, an instrument that can travel and do things that no man-made
machine has ever approached. It is a marvelous mental structure, set up
and furnished to wield influence upon the individual or upon the multi-
tude: to charm, to persuade, to command--to endow its driver with power
almost unlimited. Words represent the basic parts; sentences, the motor;
composition, the whole structure, the instrument. Expression represents
the functioning power, the application, the use.
First this wonder-machine must be understood. Examine the parts;
become familiar with them, know how each one is used, what its various
uses are. Use them. Become accustomed to their use. Learn how to inter-
change their uses. In building soundly, for powerful effectiveness, observe
the simple rule of knowing the parts--the words.
Within the covers of this book there are more than 60,000 different words,
spelled, marked for correct pronunciation, labeled for classification into
the various parts of speech, and defined with respect to their various
meanings.
To some people such a book represents a reference work, to be consulted
when in need of a spelling, a pronunciation, or a definition. To others it
may represent merely a source for words needed in crossword puzzles or
Words, The Tools of Personal Power and Success
________________________________________________________________
other word games. To those who may be interested, the suggestion is offered
that these commonly employed functions may be supplemented by a use
far and away more important and perhaps much more profitable.
How To Make Words Work for You
To master the use of words--to make words and sentences as familiar
to the tongue or the pen as one makes his legs or his arms familiar to his
needs--is to gain power in a world that was ever, and perhaps will ever be,
a world of competition. Familiarity breeds confidence; confidence radiates
power. Familiarity with words, then, produces easy flow of expression.
And once the flow is easy, with the mind released from the strain of con-
centration upon the task of speaking or writing, there many come, if one
reaches out for it, the application of atmosphere to the art of expression--
charm, magnetism, influence, power.
The action of the mind has a speed of about the same velocity as light,
approximately 186,000 miles per second. Sound has a much slower tempo,
approximately 1080 ft. per second. Articulation, writing, or typing at best
is performed at a rate of speed that is a mere fraction of the speed of
thought. Hence words, if their character is understood familiarly by the
user, may be planned into sentences, framed into logic, tested for effect
and rearranged if necessary, far ahead of the time of expression. The prac-
ticed orator or writer may think and plan more in one second than he can
express in an hour, if he be familiar with his tools.
Familiarity, then, is the keystone in the use of words. And practice--
repetition of employment--produces familiarity. Hence if one knows his
tools and practices the use of them, his actions tend to become automatic
and involuntary, releasing the mind for the service of planning and prepa-
ration.
For those who may care to engage in the development of word power, the
power of expression, through the use of this Dictionary, there is included
a strictly modern and unique course entitled "WORDS, THE TOOLS OF PER-
SONAL POWER AND SUCCESS"--a guide to Self-Education in the use of the
written, printed, or spoken word, complete with tests and answers. See
CONTENTS.
BOOKS, INC.
New York, 1939.
WEBSTER'S
New AMERICAN
DICTIONARY
COMPLETELY NEW AND UP TO DATE. PLANNED AND
WRITTEN BY MODERN EDUCATORS AND LEXICOGRAPHERS
ESPECIALLY TO SERVE THE ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
OF SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND SELF-EDUCATION AT HOME
Managing Editor
LEWIS M. ADAMS
Editor-in-chief
EDWARD N. TEALL, A.M.
C. RALPH TAYLOR, A.M.,
Author of Self-Education Department and Associate Editor;
Editor "The Home University Encyclopedia," "New American Encyclopedia,"
author of "Vital English"
Simplified Self-Education Treatises on:
GRAMMAR PUNCTUATION VOCABULARY TESTS
WRITING PRONUNCIATION WORDS MISPRONOUNCED
SPEAKING CAPITALIZATION DANGER FLAGS
Illustrated -- Self-Pronouncing -- Synonyms -- Antonyms
This Dictionary is not published by the original pub-
lishers of Webster's Dictionary, or by their successors
1959
B O O K S, I N C .
NEW YORK
