New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-11
SUNDAY MAGAZINE for JUNE IL, 1905

true principles Of rhetoric. They seem to have
renowned the long-tailed Johnsonese. most pom
derous and most pedantic of dialects in which our
fathers delighted only half century ago.
Perhaps this improvement in American style IS
due in part to the dsestabshment OF the dictionary
as a final authority and the dscroWnug Of the
grammar as the sole monarch of all It surveyed.
Perhaps it is due the growing perception that the
spoken language IS franker freSher and freer than
the written The old grammars were absurd-v
arbitrary and self-suftIcent in the rules they LAID
down and in the way they sought to shackle the
healthy growth of the language. They were guilty
of the objectionable sin of declaring that Shake
peare and the transators of the English Bile
had committed faults of grammar. if nice Gus
toms did not curtsv to great kings These old
fashioned grammarans arrogated to themselves
the privilege of saving that this usage was rigt-
and that usage wrong instead Of contenting them
selves with the humber task of recording the
several usages which they might find in the pages
Of the masters of English.
\ comparison of two American grammars Lindley
Murravs and the more recent volume by Professor
G. r Carpenter will serve TO show how far have
advanced for the later author IS modest and enta-
tive where the earlier IS arrogant and doineerug-
The trouble with these outworn grarrnars and
rhetorcs was not merely that they laid nterdict
on certain locutionS but that their was always
prohibitive They kept on declaring that this or
that must not be done. Their advice was mainly
negative; and thus 1t tended always TO crarp and
to st1en. They ordered to shun double mega
tives and split intinitives and final propositions
as if mere avoidance OF error would ever give Sinev
to q phrase. They set up false standards. and the
result was that 'schOolmaster's English became
q term OF reproach for II described style jJiceess
and nerveless. a style unfit for hard work a style
which was remote possible from the terse v1gQr
Of actual speech These false standards not
vet wholly cast out and there are still sold here
the United States every year thousands OF text
books which lay down rules of real validity.
and which tell the student what not to say, instead
Of helping him TO say what he wants. But although
this Is unfortunately true. 1t IS also that II
department Of education has the improvement
been more obvious than in the teaching of English
Attention IS now rarely called to the grammatical
errors of Shakespeare: and the CallOW student IS
not now pulled up with the conceit that he knows
more about the English language than the mighty
masters who made 1t what It is.
Three centuries ago, Samuel Daniel. the poet-lau-
reate OF King James made prophetic inquiry,
And who IN time knows whittier we may vent
The treasures OF our tongue what strange shores
The gam OF best glory may be sent
To enrich unknowing nations with stores?
What world in the Vet uniformed Occident
Nav come refined with accents that ours
Not only in the uniformed Occident but on he
strange shores of the Orient also the Il
our tongue now enrching nations unknown when
Daniel rimed these lines. And here It IS that
English is favored above all other languages that
it Is spoken merely in a single compact country
but by two great peoples with their many outpos-s
on all the seven seas There Is thus the less danger
that the language may stagnate. There Is thus
far greater variety OF sources OF retreShment and
renewal. The English Languages the mOther-tong.e
Of the British and of the Americans OF the Canadians
and of the Australians; and new words and new
meanings are being contributed constantly from
everyone of these sources OF supply