It is true that most spelling-books do give them in one
form or another, but invariably without due emphasis or special drill,
a lack which renders them worthless. Pupils and students should be
drilled upon them till they are as familiar as the multiplication table.
We know how most persons stumble over the pronunciation of names in the
Bible and in classic authors. They are equally nonplussed when called
upon to write words with which they are no more familiar. They cannot
even pronounce simple English names like _Cody,_ which they call
"Coddy," in analogy with _body,_ because they do not know that in a word
of two syllables a single vowel followed by a single consonant is
regularly long when accented. At the same time they will spell the word
in all kinds of queer ways, which are in analogy only with exceptions,
not with regular formations. Unless a person knows what the regular
principles are, he cannot know how a word should regularly be spelled.
A strange word is spelled quite regularly nine times out of ten, and if
one does not know exactly how to spell a word, it is much more to his
credit to spell it in a regular way than in an irregular way.
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