The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-09-13
LANGUAGE STUDIES.

Some Excellent Comments, and Some That
Are Open to Discussion.
Boys trained at EtOn and Harrow
are said to write better English than
boys of the same grade in American
schools, and the reason assigned is
that they are required to translate
Latin and Greek into idiOmatic Eng
fish. The study of Latin and Greek is
injurious whenever it causes the stu
dent to lose his habitual hold upon
the structural peculiarities of his own
language. Every language has its
idiOms-phrases which are con-
fusing to foreigners and which
are inexplicable upon logical princi-
pies. Lander has remarked that every
good writer has ''much idiom." A
good sentence will die under the tor
ture of too much analysis, and the writ
or who undertakes to give every SEN
tence the logical exactness and mathe-
NAUTICAL precision of an algebraic equa-
ton will end in dull and dismal fail
ure. What the writer needs above all
things, so far as style is concerned, is
to catch the spirit. the genius of his
own language. Writing in any other
fashion is like training the stems of
plants through tubes or cylinders of
glass that they may grow up straight
and without an opportunity to branch
out here and there with the spontane-
ity and freedom and luxuriance of nat
ure.
Every word is good whose roots sus-
tain and nurture the stock of common
speech. Slang is Objectionable; but
slang consists rather in phrases than
in words. New words are made from
old words. Science and mechanical
invention go back a long way in
speech to find terms descriptive of
their latest discoveries and inventions.
The telegram, the telephone, the phon-
ograph are graphic only to those who
know at least little Greek. The
philologist is constantly struck with
the thrift with which the human mind
works us its old verbal material to ex-
press its new ideas and possessions.
The history of the homeliest word
is venerable and fraught with innu-
merable associations-humo pa
thetic, sublime. We need feel no con-
tempt for these simple Anglo-Saxon
words into which the Earl of Derby
turned the ringing lines of Homer.
They are older than Greek or Latin.
They were lisped by infants in their
mothers arms; they were prattled by
children at play; they were whispered
Dy young men and maidens in love;
they were shouted by heroes in battle;
they were spoken by sages in counsel
long before one stone was laid in the
foundation of Rome-long before Cad
mus carried letters into Greece. The
broad. deep river of English speech is
fed by tributaries whose sources are
to be found in prehistoric ages-per-
enaial springs whose abundance has
been adequate to the expression of the
thought and feeling of every stage of
civilization.-N. O. Picayuna
An epicurean bishop was neatl,
taken in by smart boy at Banbury
Being DESTROYS OF tasting the famous
cakes. he beckoned to the lad to come
to him to the window of the railway
carriage, and asked the price of the
cakes. 'sThree pence each, SIR" replied
the boy. Giving him six pence, the
bishop desired him to bring one. and
added as he was running off, ..Buy one
for yourself with the other three pence y
Presently the boy returned, munchino
nus nanoury, and. handing three
pence IN coPpers to the bishop, an
n Wy. IN the most ingenious manner.
-. 1nere was only one left, sir. ''-Louuon
AsWertcdn Regisfev.