It is my great good fortune to possess a copy of Landor's works made curious and peculiarly valuable by the author's own revisions and corrections, and it is most interesting to wander through these volumes, wherein almost every page is a battle-field between the writer and his arch-enemy, the printer. The final _l_ in _still_ and _till_ is ignominiously blotted out; _exclaim_ is written _exclame_; a _d_ is put over the obliterated _a_ in _steady_; _t_ is substituted _t_ is substituted for the second _s_ in _confessed_ and kindred words; _straightway_ is shorn of _gh_; _pontiff_ is allowed but one _f_. Landor spells _honor_ in what we call the modern way, without the _u_; and the _r_ and _e_ in _sceptre_ change places. A dash of the pen cancels the _s_ in _isle_ and the final _e_ in _wherefore_, _therefore_, &c. _Simile_ is terminated with a _y_; the imperfect of the verbs _to milk_, _to ask_, etc., is spelled with a _t_; _whereat_ loses its second _e_, and _although_ is deprived of its last three letters. To his poem of "Guidone and Lucia" has been added this final verse:-- "The sire had earned with gold his son's release And led him home; at home he died in peace. His soul was with Lucia, and he praid To meet again soon, soon, that happier maid. This wish was granted, for the Powers above Abound in mercy and delight in love." And to this verse is appended the following note: "If the pret. and partic. of _lay_ is _laid_, of _say_, _said_, that of _pray_ must be _praid_. We want a lexiconomist." In his lines entitled "New Style," which are a burlesque on Wordsworth, Landor introduces a new verse:-- "Some one (I might have asked her who) Has given her a locket; I, more considerate, brought her two Potatoes in each pocket." Landor has been accused of an unwarrantable dislike to the manufacture of words; but so far from true is this, that I have known him to indulge with great felicity in words of his own coining, when conversation chanced to take a humorous turn. He makes Sam. Johnson say that "all words are good which come when they are wanted; all which come when they are not wanted should be dismissed." Tooke, in the same conversation, cites Cicero as one who, not contented with new spellings, created new words; but Tooke further declares, that "only one valuable word has been received into our language since my birth, or perhaps since yours. I have lately heard _appreciate_ for _estimate_." To which Johnson replies: "Words taken from the French should be amenable, in their spelling, to English laws and regulations. _Appreciate_ is a good and useful one; it signifies more than _estimate_ or _value_; it implies 'to value justly.'"