The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1879-07-30

not only learned jurist but a
careful scholar, who took as much
pains to be pure in his English as
to be accurate in his legal know
ledge. While no Judge ever lis
tened more attentively and pa
tiently to the argument Of coun-
sci, his ear was quick to catch the
manner as well az the matter. A
purist in English himself, he de-
lighted to observe the niceties of
style in others; and neither mis-
use nor mispronunciation Of words
escaped him.
We differ also from the Beau
fort Crescent in supposing that the
phrase "to differ NTH" is correctly
used in the paragrah we quote.
Good English prefers "differ from"
in such a sense. The Beaufort
critic will understand us when we
say we differ aglth Judge Presley
from the Beaufort Crescent. We
might criticise our Beaufort critics
own English still further, but al
ready our article is rather long,
or as he would say, "lengthy." We
would only ask if it is not rather
gratuitous in our Beaufort friend
to arimadvert so severely On a
little judicial pleasantly ? Let the
bench and the bar have just a lit
tle fun to relieve the tedium Of the
court room and bring a CLEAN of
sunshine into ;'the dusty purlieus
Of the law" "-AJbeville Press and
Banner.
We clip from tho Press and
BG:a5r q very interesting dis
cpssion which has arisen upor an
oblter dlctum of Judge Presley as
to the good English of the word
"lengthy." The Judge holds: at
is not good English. You had as
we'll say, breadtby for broad as
lengthy for long" So reports the
New berry Herald. To which the
Beaufort Crescent takes exception.
and It is in turn criticised by the
Press and Banner. We do not
pretend to be a 6eIles-lettres ex-
quisite, yet, without. desiring to
be "lengthy" advocate, we con-
tend that there is very good au-
thority for the use Of the word.
Whilst Webster is far from being
considered good Authority in South
Carolina, be, however, accredits
George Washington with the
phrase, "Lengthy periods" Glib
bon says: "For more lengthy and
original dissertations" &c. Lord
Byron says: "Murray will send a
double copy Of the Bride and
Giaour; in the last one, some
lengthy additioos," &c. Jefferson
says: "These would be details
too lengthy" Pope is accredited
with the use Of the word "length-
ful," now obsolete. When Judge
Prcsslcys observes that we might
as we'll say "breadthy," he loses
sight of the fact that mere anal.
ogy, Or the want Of it, has no con
trolling force IN the English Ian
guage. The Press and Banner
falls into the same error whilst
very properly stating that the
English is language depending
on authority. Again, ''lengthy'
does not convey the same mean
ing as dong" Lengthy means
inamoderately long-not merely
long. The English use the word
"longish," which is another modi-
ication of the word long. From
mere analogy there is no reason
why we should not say "lengthy"
as well as "handy." We are in
clined to think our word "long" is
derived from the Latin "longus,"
whilst our word "length" is from
the Anglo.Saxon "length," and
hence we add q and make the
good Saxon word "lengthy," de.
spite Judge Presley and the
RESI- of the scholars.
Our contemporary, the Press
and Banner, we think, errs in the
nice use Of the word differ. differ
1cith is used with reference to |
opinions.' "In all other cases ex-
pressing simple unlikeness differ
from is used" GAS these two per-
sons or things differ from each |
other" Webster tells US that |
this distinction is fully established |
in Tn rjan1 onI Anoorica UI 1jffar !