The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1902-03-23
The Iguo Kinds - ~
~ - - of English.

woman that has, what many OF her sex have not a
sense OF huo remarked the other day that she wondered
whether she ever could muster say Aa, no
IN an ordinary conversation She has been readins a,
phrase for years in modern novels hearing Il on the
stage but she never has heard any person use Il in
conversation except by of buresque and she feels
that she could not spring before company without laughing
Alas, moi shares, with other phrases. words,
rhetorical and grammatical poems, the honor being re.
served exclusively for written language never appear
ing except in print There arc, in fact English Lam
guages for literary oratorcai use and the other
for the humble and daily services Of common speech or
rather there orders degrees of English one like
the choir sisters among religious orders 10 nerorm the
genter and intellectual offices speech and literature;
the other like the lay sisters do the lowy Of con-
Versation What would talk his cook his
wife and friends in the strain Of Dr. Johnsons Macau
y Wfinnssf Johnson as we know from Boswell talked
very simply and well and used his Tohnsoncse only when
he addressed the public and the fragments Of his talk pre-
served 10y Boswell are infinitely human and
memorable than the resounding periods the Rambler
says or the solemn moralizng Of "Rasselas Macaulay
spake somewhat as he wrote may judge from his
answer TO the lady who tried sooh him when he scorched
his finger at the of years Madam said the infan
tile Maeaulay the agony has abated"
Who would dare If he able to talk in drawing
room or AT dinner table Edmund Burke wrote, as
Ruskn wrote, as Carlyle wrotei Who would
small talk in the style OF Emerson Gibbonl What man
would talk 10 companion Thaoeray talks his public
OUT of Vanity Fair "The Neweomes'2 Is there
that tells story her maid the aundress in the
narrative style Of Stevenson Do men chat over their
glasses in the vein OF Charles Lamb familiar that is
for written work using all his rhetorical turns his pleasant
little pedanes his hall faoetious archasms5 Do people in
the flesh order dinner Hawthorne would have
dered il in hook7 Run in mind the greatest prose
writers in English, Milton Addison, Steele Dryden Browne
Swift and Of others ancient and modern and it will
be clear that the ordinary every day speech Of the coffee
houses and clubs contemporary with those several writer's
vastly different in construction and dcon from the
language that they into books Even the playwrish
whose dialogue pretends be the venaeuar OF the day Of
fend in this regard Shakespeare OF the tragedies is not
Shakespeare giving directions the players rehearsal
in the Globe theaer. Johnsons learned sock
only in public.
Every language shows this difference between the
spoken and the written word Cicero may he did
talk his valet he talked thc Roman Even
Montague homely his style IS hardly spakc he wrote
may hope that he omitted from his conversation
the frequent Latin quotations which he addicted i'll
print
Modern literary goes for simplicity and approves
the easy and familiar style resembling but by no means
identical with ordinary conversation This tendency be
carried easily and may descend to slang neg
gcncc and in time may lose that sense Of achieved dis
tncons" in which says Waiter Paer all progress Of mind
consists question whether would be the better
way to raise the Level ersture than to
lower literature the level Of conversation but 70 the
pioneer such policy He will be voted the most POM
pou stied affected borcs and will waste his fine
periods on very tired listeners Let him his
form Of the speech by saying Alas no at dim
ncr table and watch results.San Francisco BHAetiH