Healthy, Healthful
A lady wrote to a paper asking, “Are plants in a sleeping-room unhealthy?” The answer came, “Not necessarily; we have seen some very healthy plants growing in sleeping-rooms.”
Persons are healthy or unhealthy. A plant or tree is healthy or unhealthy according as it possesses vigor. Food, surroundings and conditions are healthful or unhealthful according as they promote or destroy health.
Idea, Opinion
“Many persons think that the interior of the earth is a mass of fire; what is your idea?” Say, “What is your opinion?”
Alone, Only
“An only child” is one that has neither brother nor sister. “A child alone” is one that is left to itself. “Virtue alone makes us happy” means that virtue unaccompanied by any other advantages is sufficient to make us happy. “Virtue only makes us happy” means that nothing else can do it.
Grow, Raise, Rear
“We grow wheat, corn, oats, and potatoes on our farm.” “We raise wheat,” etc., would be better. With the same propriety we might use sleep for lodge, and eat for feed, or supply with food; as, “We can eat and sleep fifty persons at one time.”
The word raise is often incorrectly used in the sense of rear; as, “She raised a family of nine children.” It is sometimes employed in the sense of increase, as, “The landlord raised my rent.” Increased would be better.