Taking up one day Dean Trench's excellent little book on "The Study of Words," which lay on my table, Landor expressed a desire to read it. He brought it back not long afterward, enriched with notes, and declared himself to have been much pleased with the manner in which the Dean had treated a subject so deeply interesting to himself. I have singled out a few of these notes, that student of etymology may read the criticisms of so able a man. Dean Trench is taken to task for a misuse of _every where_ in making two words of it. Landor puts the question, "Is the Dean ignorant that _everywhere_ is one word, and _where_ is no substantive?" Trench asserts that _caprice_ is from _capra_, "a goat," whereupon his critic says, "No,--then it would be capr_a_cious. It is from _caper_--_capere_." _To retract_, writes Trench, means properly, as its derivation declares, no more than to handle over again, to reconsider; Landor declares that "it means more. _Retrahere_ is _to draw back_." But he very vehemently approves of the Dean's remarks on the use of the word _talents_. We should say "a man of talents," not "of talent," for that is nonsense, though "of a talent" would be allowable. "[Greek: Kosmos] is both 'world' and 'ornament,' hence 'cosmetic,'" writes Landor in answer to a doubt expressed by Trench whether the well-known quotation from St. James, "The tongue is a world of iniquity," could not also be translated, as some maintain, "the ornament of iniquity." Making use of the expression "redolent of scorn" in connection with words that formerly expressed sacred functions and offices, Landor adds: "Gray is highly poetical in his 'redolent of joy and youth.' The word is now vilely misused daily." "By and bye," writes the Dean. "Why write _bye_?" asks his commentator. Once or twice Landor credits Horne Tooke with what the Dean gives as his own, and occasionally scores an observation as old. "Why won't people say _messager_?" he demands. "By what right is _messenger_ made out of _message_?" * * * * *