, 1873-01-26

to speak French, which was. then counted no
small token OF gsntility." We are al familiar
! with Dr.. Johnson's fondness for words Of learned
length and laundering sound. "The great le1-
icographer," az the fine writer's call him, had
dialect Of his own, which has been wittily styled
Johns0nese. Goldsmith hit him in vulnerable
! spot when he said, "Doctor, if you were to.
| write fable about little fishes, you would make
| them talk like whales" And yet, when
ono day the Doctor took up new translation Of
the Testament, and in place Of the words 81 Jesua
wept," 30 touching in their simplicity, read
"Jcsus, the Savior OF the World, oyercome
/ with grief, burst into = flood Of tears," ha
threw down the book in great rage, e1claiuling
"Puppy!' and, had the author been present,
would probably have thrown the book at hia
head Our readers need not be told how muck
Carlyle has done to Teutonize our language With
his "yardlongtailed" German compounds. It
Was just stroke OF criticism when New York
auct;oneer Introduced q miscellaneous lot OF
books to crowd with the remark: "Gentlemeu,
Of this lot need only say, ak volumes IRE by
Thomas Carlyle; the seventh is written in the
English language" Some years ago, q learned
Doctor Of Divinity and University Professor in
Canada wrote work in which, wishing to state
the simple fact that the 8'rude Indian" hAd
learned the use Of firing, he delivered himseH a.
follows:
+. "He Ind made e1avo Of the Ileaven-born ele-
ment, the brother Of the lightning, the grand
alchenist and artihcer Of all times, though as
yet he knew not all tho worth OF magical power
that was in him. By his means the sturdy oak..
which flung abroad it's stalwart arms and waved.
it's 1cafy honols defiant in the forest, WAS made.
to bow to the behsst Of the simple aboEgines."
Shade Of Pop Emmons! what san awful sicht
o. words !" To such writer We would say as
Falstaf said to Pistol: 'kf thou hast any It'd
ings, prithee deliver them like man Of thia
world!" similar request ZIG would make to
writer's like Harrison Ainsworth, with whom
dogs tail is always this caudal appendage,t
and dsh-pond ga piscine preserve" When
shall We learn that the secret Of beauty and Of
force in speaking and writing is not to say sin-
pie things finely, but to say fine things as SIM
ply as possible? Fitz-Greene Halleck tells ua
that some years ago q letter fell into his hands
which Scotch eeryant-gir1 had written to her
lover. Tho style charmed him, and his literary
friends agreed that its stylo WAS fairly inim-
table. Anxious to clear up the mystery OF its.
beauty, and even elegance, he searched for it's
author, who thus solved the enigma: ''sir,
came to this country four years ago. Than
did not know how to read or write. But since
then hare learned how to read and write, but.
hare not yet learned how to spell 30 alwsya-
when sit down to write a letter, choose those
words which are SO short and simple that am.
sure to know how to spell them" This WAS tha
whole secret. The seimple-minded Scotch girl
knew more Of rhetoric than Blair, Campbell, and
Whately. Her reply condenses volumes of in
st1uction into nutshell As Halleck forcibly
says; "6impicity is beauty. Simplicity is
power"