ABSTRACT
Roger North probably first read Hale's 'Preface' as a student of the law. But sometime after 1686 he seems to have re-read the 'Preface', for he cites it in a number of his writings, including the piece of writing. Since North himself argues that common usage is the arbiter of practice, he allies himself with the anomalists not only in language but also in law. North draws on two other branches of learning to assist his reflections on language usage. One is grammar in the narrow sense, which studies the material of language, including phonology and orthography—the treatment of letters and their combination into sounds and words, the subject of spelling. North then cautions that the twofold distinction of law into natural and artificial is not supernaturally imprinted on the mind but results from the experience of 'all men in all times and conditions'.
