Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-07-02

guage. Perhaps there has never been time
In the history the Of world when men gained
knowledge so rapidly as in tho past quarter Of a
century. Many Of tho modern additions to
knowledge have been such as to require new
signs. AS the froAts, thaws, and rains destroy
the!sharp aud jagged ,odgcs Of tho rocky cliffs,
81 the active business inslincts Of our people
have n tendency to clip OF tho angles, straight
en- the crooked, shorten the long, and simplify
the complex. There are two means by which
these new demands have been supplied. The
first is that Of using old words with new mean
ings. The second and perhaps principal one
is that OF borrowing from foreign languages,
especially from the Latin and Greek. These
modes of growth will continue and if century
from now We were to come back TO this earth
we would see a vast difference in our mother
tongue,
All languages have their peculiar ndvantag-
es. The English has the excehences of all
without the drawbacissiof any. II has gained
strength from the Teu,nhs, eup phony and music
from the Romance tongues and poli,eness from
the French. Our vocabulary has recruited it.
'o'f from the speech Of every people aud litera"
ture with which the English race has had COM
munication. Richard Grant White has called
II "the grammarless tongue" but this is also an
advantage, as was shown three centuries ago by
Sir Philip Sydney. He says, "Nay, truly, il
hath that praise that 1t wants not grammar I;
for grammar 1t might have but needs Il not, be-
ing so easy in itself and so void of those cum
bersnme differences Of cases, genders, modes
and lenses, which, think, was piece Of the
tower Of Babylon's carsc that a man should be
put 10 school to learn his mother tongue" lit
is "the grammarless tongue" II is the finest
tongue there is, for in expressing both sweetiy
and profoundly the thoughts Of man, it far sur
passes any other. In English better. perh aps,
than in any other language living or dead, can
words be found which are an "echo to the
sense" let the sense be what II will. With us
poetry differ. from prose, not only in having a
certain arrangement Of syllablcs and feet. but in
the very words that compose II; so much so
that the writings of ossian, though they have
neither rhyme nor metre, are classed by many
among poems. The English Is the only mod
ern language in which blank verse can be writ.
ten. A well deserv ed tribute is paid by WIN
Matthews. when he SAYS, "The language which
at the beginning Of its full organization c.ud
produce the voluptunus beauty of Spencer, anc
the oceanic melody of Shakespeare, nnd which
at ripper age could show itself an adequate in
strument fnr the organ like harmOnies uf Miltnr
is surely equal to the demands of any geniu:
that may yet arse IN tax its powers. IL noy
girdles the earth with its electric chain of com.
munication. 1t voices the thoughts of hnnd
red millions Of souls, and bids fair to becom,
the dominant language Of the civilized world
Let us jealously guard its purity, m,intain it,
ancient doms, and develope its ineI Ihaustibl,
resources. that it may be even more worthy
than ii now is to be the mother tongue. not on
ly of the two great brnther nations whose pre-
cious legacy 1t is but Of the whole family o
| man."