Excerpt from English Usage: Studies in the History and Uses of English Words and Phrases It is Often said that a preface is unnecessary. I feel, how ever, that I should write one to set forth the Object and the scope of this volume. I have long felt that not only purists but a far better class of men were putting us, teachers and pupils and general pub lic, in strait-jackets. Distinguished grammarians and emi nent rhetorical scholars condemn in their books many words and phrases that we see all through the literature. They seem at times to combine to expel from the language some locution that we have heard frequently from attractive speakers and have seen often in the works of eminent writers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.