Middletown transcript., 1881-06-17
USE SHORT WORDS AND ENGLISH
ONES
Prepared and read by William E.
Wright, Esq, before the Irving Lyceum
of MiddletOwn, Del.

from the lips of the educated, as from
those Of the unlearned) and especial,
as applied to the needlessly slipsho'
methods of common speech, where OBJ
tains wholesale beheading, clipping
and dropping Of letters or syllables, tn,
rebuke is as just to-day as it was thel
perhaps a trifle more 50, seeing tina
we stand foremost in the files of men
"rich with the spoils of time, " whereof!
the distribution of knowledge being
more general, a better use of the Ian
guage should result. But alas in oul
day, the lack with a large class Of wri
ters is greater, if possible, than that
which stirred the anger of this ancient
Cato of good English, since we are
confronted with the additional task Of
getting them to write their own tongue
at all, even though badly
A word as to the folly of using big
words, and borrowing foreign ones,
when writing English.
The art Of writing correct English
is worthy to be ranked among the fine
arts. Like them, it is the fruit of Ia
borious study, OF, as that compact ak
ION put it, Limac labor ct nora-The
labor and the delay of the file as if by
a painfully slow process, with little
hand tool, one should shape the massive
iron frame of great ship! But when
comparing ones own lame periods with
the marvels of prose i'll which the Ian
guage abounds, one is half persuaded
to believe that writers Of prose not less
than writers Of poetry, are born, not
made, as Horace says in his Art of
Poetry. Yet the testimony of many
famous writers is that they acquired
their art by long and diligent use of
the file. Burns and Franklin have left
in their delightful autobiographies en-
couraging accounts of how they at
tanned their simple, but perfect styles.
Beecher said it took him almost life
time to get his skill of composing briefly
and well, and Pope says tease in writ
ing comes not by chance" If, then,
these eminent minds achieved at such
cost the mastery of their mother
tongue, will the common student do
more by dividing his attention between
several languages ? Let us see what
sort Of coinage these great thinkers
have put forth from the mintage of
their golden brains, and note if their
issue be alloyed with foreign metal.
Scan the pages of the Rambler, the
Taller, OF the Spectator, and learn how
Steele, Addison and johnson wrote.
Observe the diction Of De Quincy or
Swift. Study but leaf Of Locke OF
Burke, Gray or Scott, and remark how
they all wrote English in its purity,
without weakly borrowing from other
tongues.
Thus from the Lady of the Lake, by
Scott =
The stag at eve had drunk his fill
Where danced the wave on Monan's rill;
And deep his midnight lair had made,
In lone Glenartneys hazel shade
Here we have in four verses, only one
word of more than a single syllable
(proper names eXcepted), and not
foreign word in the whole poem Again
from Scott
Breathes there "A man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native lund!'
Words Of one syllable with but one
of two. Again, the simple lines that
begin Paradise Lost:
OF mans first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our
woe.
with loss Of Eden. till one greater man.
Restore US, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heavily Muse
Here in six lines. are found but four
words of more than one syllable Thus,
that fine depression in book first which
describes a whale, to whom in size, the
fallen Fiend floating on the burning
lake, is likened
Him haply slumD'ring on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night-tounder'd skiff
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind.
MOOrs by his side under the lea, while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.
Or the mournful beauty of its closing
lines :
The world was all before them where to
choose.
Their place of rest, and Providence their
They, hand in hand, with wand'ring steps
and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way.
Thus, in these three selections from
this confessedly learned work, more
than eighty-fve per cent of the words
are monosyllabic, while there is not
one word other than English in the
entire poem.
Again the exquisite close of our
finest poem, Thanatopsis :
So live, that when thy summons comes to
join.
The innumerable caravan that moves
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall
take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Though go, not like the quarry,slave at night
scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained, and
by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the dIapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams!
How would little dash of cheap
French ochre improve this picture Or
some bookish italian mend this stirring
call to duty from LongfellOw's Psalm
of Life =
Life is real life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal
Dust thou art to dust refurneth
Was not spoken of the soul.
Or the simple grace of Whittier's
Psalm -
The woods shall wear their robes of praise,
The south wind softly sigh,
And sweet, calm days, in golden haze,
Melt down the amber Aslzy;
Who does not admire the easy style
0fthephilosopher Franklin, who whether
he give d choice bit Of narrative, or
some marvellous discovery in
or PROFOUND some sage matter
of craftsmanship, makes choice of words
so simple they almost startle the reader
OF his early hOpSa IynaDipo hp modpCtIxy