Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-09-25
ENGLISH ( - ~


Thsre IL Sci. SOFA e., - .- ~ -. d.
ployiT. i'n..: ~ ' '!.'
l., there any H., \ tx (. tH'
foreign Argus, W;.,n tie il
be expressed with cIrl r!H,'"'
br~vity AMI lore. i'll on o'.. - =
SaXont l.: t,icre any sc':'o J" =.
ing that Il Dlau hiss ! ,OtI i.-'' 49,
mum when we mean 81, 900 yr.':
Why should we say that t. .'3pl>
OF the United States III, J., n1 ":l
average every year - n.Hny 33!:in =
Of distilled spirits Der capita when
we mean so many gallons eAvA, or,
we may say, Il head! We may AID
that the words per capita are Il sole
cis,n, meaning by heads. III we are
to use any Latin III the premises,
we should consult correctness and
say per caput.
What earthly reason for calling
popular hymn and tune book
"Laudes Dominic" 1t sometimes
happens that there are iee1s CON
veyed by foreign word wllch
hardly have an equivalent in Eng
lish. In these cases it is perhaps
permissible to borrow the foreign
word or phrase For example, we
possibly have no single word which
is the equivalent Of the French
persiflage. That, however, has been
adopted into our dictionaries and
may be considered an English word
of French parentage. But docs
mauvais homie express anything not
conveyed by false shamei and is
sang froid anything more than cool
blOOdi
The use of foreign words and SEN
fences is peculiarly inappropriate in
inscriptions which are to be read
by the plain people. When the
friends of the departed DR.. Gold
smith appended their signatures to
round robin, begging that the cpl
taph upon the poet might be in Eng
lish, and when the ozar of lite1a-
ture, with wonted absolutism, said
"An English inscription would be a
disgrace to Westminster abbey"
he was wrong, as positive people are
very apt to be. OF the millions who
have read with delight 1.-The Tray
eler" and the Deserted Village"
and 1.-THE Vicar of Wakefield" how
small fraction of per cent are
those who know aught of any Ian
guage but English!
When the fathers and mothers,
the sisters and SONS, of the men who
died in the war for liberty and union
read, with dinmed eyes, upon the
monument erected by grateful coun-
trymen the story of the virtues and
sufferings of their heroes, it is hard
that they should he confronted by a
Latin sentence which reminds them
of their ignorance of classic tongues.
1t is possibly we'll enough to have a
Latin or Greek inscription in Ne:
mortal hall of Harvard university,
for those who read it can look as if
they understood it, but what reason
for putting over the memorial to
Colonel Shaw and his black soldiers
the Latin motto OF the Cincinnati,
which mocks his surviving comrades
and the sons of those who fell at
Fort Wagner with their enforced il
literacy9 AS il to add to the infe-
icity of the situation, scholars tell
us that the inscription is not even
good Latin. "Reliqucrunt omnia
conservare republican, should be
out conservarent rempublicam. "
The neighboring monument on the
common, erected by the state of Mas
sachusetts to the heroes of the war,
bears, fittingly, an inscription that
is English Observation-Disclosures
phia Press.
The "Bicycljsts Best Friend" is ia
| ,,;l;o, wanna for noyVitt'c WI tch Ha2a