The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-06-01
A NUT FOR PHILOLOGIsTs.


to passage in Macaulay's essay upon the life
of John Bunyan, in which the latter 10 highly
applauded for his use of Saxon in preference
to Latin words. In the commendatory pas.
sage Macaulay, while condemning the use of
Latin words, used nearly half Latin words
himself. In the Westminster Review for DC.
tober last, in an able article on the philosophy
of style, we find the subjoined passage, in
which the writer goes into high encomiums
upon the use of words purely Saxon. We sus.
pect it is easier to praise than to initiate in
this instance, as the reader will sec. We have
placed all the words of Latin and Greek origin
in italics. They form nearly fourth of the
whole.
"The superior forcibleness of Saxon Eng
lsh, or rather non Latin English, first claims
assignable for this may all be reduced TO the
general reason-economy. The most ampor-
tant of them is early association. A chlld's
vocabulary is almost wholly Saxon. He says,
l hare, not l possess-I ssish, not L desire /;
he does not reflect, he thinks he does not beg
for amusement, but for play; he calls things
nice or nasty, not pleasant or disagreedbte -
The synonymss which he learns in after years
never become so closely, so organicatly con-
aected with the ideas Signyfed, as do these
original words used in childhood and hence
the asso citation remains less pocerfut. But
in what does powerful association between
word and an idea differ from a weak one ?
Simply in the greater ease and rapidity of the
suggestive action. 1t can be in nothing else.
Both of two words, if they be strictly synony.
nous, eventually call up the same image
The e1preSsion-it is acid, must in the end
give rise to the same thought as-it is soar !:
but because the term acid was learn later in
life, and has not been so often followed by the
thought symbolized, it does not so readily
arouse that thought as the term sour; if we
remember how slowly and with what labor
the appropriate ideas follow unfamiliar words
in another language, and how increasing fa
miliarity with such words brings greater ra
pidity and ease of comprehension, until, from
its having been a conscious effort to realize
their meanings, their meanings ultimately
como without any effort at all and if we con-
slider that the same process must have gone
on with the words of our mother tongue from
childhood upwards, we shall clearly see that
the earliest learnt and oftenest used words,
will, other things equal, call up images With
less loss of time and energy than their later
learnt synonymes.
"The further superiority possessed by Sax.
on English in its comparative brerity obrs-
Ously comes under the same generaltzat'oD.-
If it be an advantage to cypress an idea in the
smallest number of words, then will it be an
advantage to erpress it in the smallest number
of syllables. If eircuitous phrases and need
less eGpletiUes distract the attention and H.
minisk the strength Of the impression pro
duced, then do surplus articulatiOns do so.-
A certain effort, though commonly an iHQppre-
ciable one, must be required to recognise eve
ry rOwel and consOnant. IT, as we so COM
monty find, the mind soon become, fatigued
when we listen to an indistinst orlar removed
speaker, or when we read badly written ma
aUscript; and il, as we cannot AOubt, the ia.
tigue is a cumulative result # the attention
required to catch successive syllables it OBJ.
riOusiy follows that attentDn is in such cases
absorbed by each syllabs. And if this be
true when the sytiables ore difficult of reesg.
milton, it will also be que, though in less
degree, when the reeofnition of them is easy.
Hence, the shortness Df Saxon words becomes
reason for their greater force, as inrelring a
saring of the arti,llations to be receired."
DIR. o. w. Hames says he does not believe
| in the equality of the sexes-in fact he rates
woman rather higher than man.
II is said that the Empress of China has be-
come christian, and that the Emperor him.
| self is half converted.