The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-08
The Modern Revolution in style.

"But perhaps the most wonderful revolution
IN literature has taken place with regard to our
language, and the use of it. The chang es above
mentioned occurred in natural, or at least an
ordinary course of fashion, tor letters yield to
fashion as well as dress yields to it. 1t would
serve a man very little nowadays 10 give his
days and nights 90 the study of Addison, and it
would serve hlm less to make his intellectual
whitebalts converse in the tone of the whales
in the RdnlOLer. In the wig period you should
have model, or rather there were one or two
models, ano you should ape, measure, and man.
age exactly according to them. This would be
good plan II the models were perfect. We
can understand, for example, how such models
could be set up in France with the authority of
the Academiclans; but we have no Academy in
ENGLAND. Our language has managed to wax,
and kick, and grow strong without the least
care or nursing. We can point to writer's whose
periods lail with as graceful cadence as those
OF Cicero, and to writers whose sentences are as
close and as pregnant as those OF Livy. Con-
sldering that, save Johnson's Dictionary "a
sngle-hand work), we have had no exact register
OF our wealth In words, and no means by which
their shades and colors could be sorted, we have
reason to be proud.
"Stlll, we are not out OF danger. We take
extraordinary freedom with our language We
scarcely give 1t tar play. What havoc Mr.
OF others in this connection has he to answer!
Raw German recruits, French dandy phrases,
words even with Latin Jackets and Saxon treWs,
so 10 speak, marching ike 'Falstaff's' regiment
through his books, and you are 'blasphemous to
the eternal verities,' or something equally crimi-
nal and unusual, If YOU do not con. prehend the
ludlcrous collection. We confess if such a
style were deiunct, we should not regret it,
MIR. CarlSle Is a man of gerius, and his
whims form but a part OF him: his imita.
tors are mostly blockheads, and the air
of Mr.. Carlyles barbaric strains is all
they can pick up. The author of the Latter
day Pamphlets has one disciple, however, of
whom he may be vain. There is the plainest
evidence in our Mutual Friend that Mr.
Dickens has been touched with the eternal
Yerliles.' This Is not surprising when we bear
in mind the peculiar characteristics of Mr.
Dickens genius, and his habit OF REGARDING the
grotesque siGe OF emotion, just as Mr.. Carlyle
does the grotesque side of thinking. 1t is natu-
raj, then, that they should approximate on the
ground OF language. BoIh aim at a mystical
point, and both endeavoring for striking situa.
tions, come now and again within hail of each
other.
perhaps the most perfect style for precision.
perspicactv, and ease, OF our time, is to be found
in the works OF Mr.. John Stuart Mill. 1t is
wonderful how clearly he conveys an idea which
you scarcely know to be new until you have
mastered it. Nor is this style devoid OF crna-
ment II you hold up glass OF sprng water
to the light you can see the prismatic cOlOrs in
1t, though the water be pure and pellucd as
crystal. If you read Mr.. Mills sentences IA
second or third time, the coloTs and the beauty
OF the language unfold but it first does its
business perfectly. MIR. Herbert Spencer follows
close alter MIR. Mill, and, Yenturing into more
ltHOlc QudIlGIf' uGStINtS great cfeulI IOf l0C
absence OF that muddy protundiCy which philo-
sophers often try to pass for wisdom.
"AtTeT all, we must concede that's writer who
wants TO introduce novel notion must often
go round about in order to bring it to as; and
these notions multiply iasrer than the means OF
expressing them. A simple idea may be in
closed IN a simple word, but an idea may involve
a complex proposition outside itself and lately
born, so lately born and so suddenly that there
is Il difficulty in finding swaddlng clothes for ii.
Johnson tells us, III will be found, in the pro-
eress OF learning, that in all nations the first
writers are simple, and that every age i'm
proves in elegance. saturated intellect
soon becomes fastdous; and kno owledge
finds no willing reception till it is recommended
by art fetal dlction. A saturated intellect is
tor wants 10 say, in his native toneue. that plain
words only suit plain people, and that you must
have artincial diction' Tor educated folk. 'Arh-
| hClal dCtiOn,' otherwise book English. has been
wisely disCountenanCed, and should not be
resorted to save, as we before remarked, where
| the originality OF view necessltatcs an original
| combination of words or placing OF them in
| an original light. What changes our language
| has yet to undergo, whe her Hdnlle. will appear
as obsolete as Ihe WTe Of Bath, whether Mr..
| Tenl yson will be Zone for as Chaucer was are
| speculahons arising out OF our subject, but
| which, at present, we must leave here. We do
! believe, however, that a service would be rem
| dered TO our literature by reducing it TO some
slderation Of the dead STILES would be fitting
preface Tor the work. "-LOndOR Reader.
| RAIL CARS HEATED WITHOUT FIRE.-Thev use
| on the Prussian railroads a heat generator,
| which consists of a cone of wood covered with