1. Reasons for Familiarity.

The first essential of any sign used to convey an idea, is that the sign be recognized as representing a certain object, act or relation. Upon our familiarity with a word all its value as a sign of an idea depends. We can, indeed, sometimes guess the meaning of a sentence when only a part of the words are known. The fact that all strange words are of little or no value to the communication of an idea, is shown by out ex¬perience in learning a foreign language. When we know only a few words, the page means almost nothing to us ; when we learn the meaning of a few more, the sense begins to dawn : but when we attach the true meaning to all, the ides is caught as the eye passes over the page. Apart from the signification, famil¬iarity has much to do with our power to put the form of the word before the mind. Beginners in a foreign language confound similar forms, and find great diffi¬culty in pronouncing names. A strange word taxes every mental power, as may be seen by experiment The sentence, "He approached with the utmost frai¬cheur," would be unintelligible to most English readers. They would be compelled to pause painfully and fruit¬lessly upon it, and finally leave it without deriving its content