developed. It never lost its basic simplicity of structure and directness of statement, but from courts and schools, from travelers and traders, from friends and foes, it took to itself all that it needed to make it express the fullest range of thought of the entire people.

In his "Working Grammar of the English Language" the author states: "Its lack of intricate and complicated forms is . . . . welcomed as an acquisition and an attainment, wrought out by the conflicts of centuries, with the result that the English language has achieved a marvelous simplicity, such as no other language ever attained, and has made that simplicity compatible with exactness, force, and beauty."

More than ten years before his death, the author began this book. He did not hasten its publication; it was to be a more personal thing than any of the other twenty-five works that bear his name, and he wanted constantly to enrich and perfect it. He let "Historic English" benefit by all the ideas created in the most mature, yet active, years of his literary life.

By heredity and by environment, by early training and by his entire life's work, James Champlin Fernald was well fitted to write the vital "history of English as a language.

A descendant of Dr. Renald Fernald, who came from England to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1630, and a son of Judge Henry B. Fernald, he was

born in Portland, Maine, in 1838. He grew up in an environment where pride in the history of the English-speaking race combined with uncompromising accuracy in the use of the language itself. From his early years the study of English fascinated him. At Harvard he did notable work in English, among other honors winning the Bowdoin Prize in English Composition.

Determining on the ministry, he spent three postgraduate years in Newton Theological Seminary, graduating at the age of twenty-five. His experiences in the service of the Massachusetts Relief Association on the battlefields of the Civil War quickened his maturity and strengthened his power in the ministry, to which a quarter of a century was devoted.

Great as was the power of his spoken word during this period, the power of his written word proved greater. Fighting the liquor traffic from the pulpit, he also fought it with the pen, and his writings were reprinted throughout the entire nation.

Dr. Isaac K. Funk was quick to recognize his power, and prevailed upon him to come to New York, to assist in editing the Voice and the Homiletic Review, and to write his "Economics of Prohibition," whose arguments became the accepted standards of the movement which has finally resulted in prohibition.

When the staff of experts was organized to prepare the Standard Dictionary, Doctor Funk chose

Doctor Fernald for the difficult post of editor of the Department of Synonyms, Antonyms and Prepositions. The success of this work led to nearly thirty years of literary activity, with every year adding to his international recognition as an authority on the English language.

A series of abridgments of the Standard Dictionary; authoritative works on English and rhetoric; and a number of notable books outside of these two fields-compose that part of the achievements of Doctor Fernald's lifetime which are handed along on the printed page. A glance at the list of his works elsewhere in this volume will indicate their scope.

With this book and its companion volume, “Effective English," the series is ended: the pen has fallen, and the author's hand, busy with these chapters to the very last, is laid to rest.