279. “He lives in affluence, as he is in affluent circumstances:” beware of placing the accent in affluence and affluent on the syllable flu instead of on af, a very common error.
280. “If I say, ‘They retreated back,’ I use a word that is superfluous, as back is implied in the syllable re in retreated:” never place the accent on flu in superfluous, but always on per.
281. “In reading Paley’s ‘Evidences of Christianity,’ I unexpectedly lit on the passage I wanted:” say, met with the passage, &c.
282. A gentleman having selected a book from the library shelves of the Mechanics’ Institute, went to the librarian to have the volume registered under his name, and said, “I have taken the life of Julius Cæsar.” “I shall then,” responded the librarian, “charge the work to Mr. Brutus!” Be careful how you “take the lives” of distinguished men.
283. “He has a bayonet to his gun:” never say baggonet. This error is a peculiarity of the Wiltshire dialect, in England. In an old Wiltshire song the following stanza occurs:
“A hornet zet in a holler tree,
A proper spiteful twoad was he;
And merrily zung while he did zet,—
His sting as sharp as a baggonet.”
284. “Aunt Deborah is down with the rheumatiz:” say, rheumatism; this is one among the isms, though a very unpopular one.
285. “It is obligatory upon every honest man to go to the polls to-day:” accent lig, and not ga.
286. “On the contrary:” accent con, not tra. The old song takes up with a bad pronunciation, for the sake of a good rhyme:
“Mistress Mary,
Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?”