Sir Richard Paget calls this little book rightly 'a new approach to the study of English words'. He develops here a new theory of language. Language must have started from gestures, and every tongue position must, so he claims, be a weakened bodily gesture. He examines vowels and consonants in detail, taking many words and comparing their meaning with the gesture they convey. He comes to very definite conclusions, such as, for instance, that a high tongue position or gesture—as he prefers to call it—is used for words meaning little, small or high. He makes an appeal for a standard pronunciation of English according to its 'gestural' meaning and reproves all who conform to a 'fashion' in pronunciation. His book stands in contrast to accepted etymological and phonetic findings. But it is well-written and makes stimulating reading.