The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-06
THE ABusE OF DIALECT,

In the main, the practice of the best writers confirms the rule that dialect should only be used to convey ideas for the expression of which the standard language is inadequate. and should be used only to an extent sufficient to mark the indivuality of the speaker Where the use of dialect is really vitali- zing, where it emphasizes character really worth knowing, 1t is permissible
 but not otherwise And after all, the experience for which the literary lang uage does not provide sufficient ex- pression Is comparatively unimportant It Is sign of degeneracy in our litera-
 ture when writers deliberately resort
 to the grotesque. the archaic, or the
 vernacular. It is the duty of his countrymen to maintain the credit of the tongue that Shakespere wrote. We
 owe far more to it than to any dialect.
 It Is astonishing that Scotsmen of all people in the world should fail to real
 ize the significance of the fact that the Scottish people, like the English, have done their thinking, not in dialect, but in English, on the. most solemn occasi-
 ons in their lives. For more than two
 centuries the thoughts which have
 made Englishmen and English women
 what they are. which have made Scots-
 men and Scotsworrien what they are have been presented to them in English
 pure and undecided. The literary value of the church-service to the Eng fish people has been incalculable; and
 this is true also of Scotland. In town and country, for generation, Scotch people have heard the Bible read In the church every afbath, and many of
 them. used to hear it read twice a day
 at family exercise As children they learned by heart the metrical version of the Psalms and the csean-cut, To- gical, dogmatic statements of the Shorter Catechism." Their religion in short, came to them in an English garb It would be difficult to overestimate the literary importance of this fact It has had a much profounder influence upon their literature, if they would only think of it, than their songs and bal lads, or the story of Wallace, of which Burns said that it poured tide of Scottish prejudice into his veins which would continue to boil along there until the tioodgates shut in eternal rest No one can take just view of the con- parative value of the vernacular litera- ture of Scotland who leaves out of sight the important fact, which Scotsmen presumably overlook only because it Is so familiar, that the standard English has been to them of far greater value than their own form of speech. It only
 needs a. moments reflection to prove
 that there are some things which their dialect cannot accomplish. To an ordinary sober-minded Scotsman it would appear partly grotesque, and partly profane, to state the great veri- ties of his religion in anything but the
 purest speech. With true insight Sir
 Walter Scott does not make Mause
 Headrigg, pronouncedly vernacular
 though she naturally Is, give paraphra- ses of Scripture in her own dialect. She quotes correctly the Orientalisms of the Old Testament; she gives the very
 words of the authorized translation as
 knowing them familiarly, and believing
 in plenary inspiration.
 The ideas capable of being expressed
 even In the purest dialect which has fallen behind In the race for supremacy are and must be at best only of second
 rate or third-rate value The Scotsman
 equally with the Englishman, is inter
 ested in maintaining the dignity of Eng fish speech. "The language of world wide literature" said Dean Stanley.
 Ifs the only fitting garb for those eter- nal and primary principles of which the
 Grecian poet has said that they have their foundation on high, all embrac- ing like their parent Heaven; neither did mortal infirmity preside over their
 birth, nor shall forgetfulness lay them to sleep. There is in them great divi- nifty that grows not old" ."-Macmillan's Magazine