A handsome man or handsome woman is not improved by a shabby or slatternly attire; so the best abilities are shown to a disadvantage through a style marked by illiteracies.
PART IV.
MISTAKES AND IMPROPRIETIES
IN SPEAKING AND WRITING CORRECTED.
1. Have you learned French yet? say learnt, as learned is now used only as an adjective,—as, a learned man. Pronounce learned in two syllables.
2. The business would suit any one who enjoys bad health [from an advertisement in a London newspaper]; say, any one in a delicate state of health, or, whose health is but indifferent.
3. "We have no corporeal punishment here," said a schoolmaster once to the author of this little work. Corporeal is opposed to spiritual; say, corporal punishment. Corporeal means having a body. The Almighty is not a corporeal being, but a spirit, as St. John tells us.