This passage marks a change from Noah Webster's undoubted nationalism, and also differences between American and British pronunciation. The 1831 edition, discounts their a revision, had simply referred the most accurate rules of pronunciation and the most general usage of speaking (1831/1962: 16). At the same time that the 183 l edition headed all of its pages with An Easy Standard of Pronunciation its preface further asserted that "A perfect standard of pronunciation, in a living language, is not to be expected; and when the best English dictionaries differ from each other .. where are we to seek for undisputed rules? And how can we arrive at perfect uniformity? '. (Ibid.) What seems clear is that Webster and his revisers through numerous editions were interested in uniformity. Authority and the rules of English, even though they recognized variation in actual practice. It is interesting to note that g was not a large part of the system. The 1831 edition tells us that the abridged grammar originally included in the book had been omitted, along with the geographical tables. because "Geography and Grammar are sciences that require distinct treatises and. it is believed to be more useful to confine this work to its proper objects, the teaching of the first elements of language, spelling and reading (ibid.). The 1880 edition merely says that it will provide the distinctions of the parts of speech, and thus anticipate, in some degree, the knowledge of grammar (1880: 5-6). Authoritative treatment of grammar was not yet part of the American paradigm for elementary language teaching in these books.