You have already mastered many words, but a glance at any page of the
dictionary will convince you that you have not mastered all. Nor will you,
ever. Their number is too great, and too many of them are abstrusely
technical.
Nevertheless there remain many words that you should bring into your
vocabulary. Most of them are not extremely usual; on the other hand they
are not so unusual that you would encounter them but once in a lifetime.
The majority of them are familiar to you, perhaps; that is, you will have
a general feeling that you have seen them before. But this is not enough.
Do you know exactly what they mean? Can you, when the occasion comes, use
them?-use them promptly and well? This is the test.
Many of the words are absolutely new so far as this book is concerned.
They have not been discussed or attached to any list. Many are not
entirely new. They have appeared, but not received such emphasis that they
are sure to stand fast in your memory. Or some cognate form of them may
have been mastered, yet they themselves may remain unknown. Thus you may
know _commendation_ but not _commendatory_, _credulous_ but not
_incredulity_, _invalid_ but not _invalidate_ or
_invalidity_. One of the best of all ways to extend your vocabulary
is to make each word of your acquaintance introduce you to its immediate
kinsmen, those grouped with it on the same page of the dictionary.
This chapter puts you on your mettle. Hitherto you have been given
instructions as to the way to proceed, Now you must shift for yourself.
The words, to be sure, are corraled for you. But you must tame them and
break them, in order that on them you may ride the ranges of human
intercourse. If you have not yet learned how to subdue them to your will
and use, it would be futile to tell you how. You have been put in the way
of mastering words. The task that henceforth confronts you is your own.
You must have at it unaided.
It is true that, in the exercise that follows, specific help is given you
on a limited number of the words. But this help is only toward discovering
the words for yourself before you have seen them in a list. And for most
of the words not even this meager assistance is given.