New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-11


cannot do better than accept the advice prOered
by one of the sagest of MoiGre's characters-Arste
in the School for Husbands who declares that
it is best to follow the fashion slowly in language
as well in clothes
And another comic dramatst, Ben Jonson, who
rivals Molitre in his common-sense, puts the case
1pthv as was his wont, when he asserted that
custom is the most certain mistress OF language,
as the public stamp makes the current money.
But we must not be too frequent with the mint,
every dav coming nor fetch words from the eX
IRENE and uttermost ages since the chief virtue OF
a stvle is perspicutv. and nothing vicious in it
as to need interpreter. Words borrowed of
antiquity do lend kind of majesty to style, and
are not without their delight sometimes For they
have the authority OF years and out of their inter
mission do win themselves a kind of grace-llke
newness But the eldest of the present, and newest
Of the past language, is the best
The French who have less initiative than the
twir-ueopes that speak English. have yielded
thority to the French Academy, founded by
Richelieu to act as the guardian and trustee of
the language Whenever a word or a phrase has
been passed upon by the Academy and admitted
to citizenship, then its validity is placed beyond
all question But there is French dictionary,
even if it is edited by member of the Academy,
which does not include thousands Of locutions not
vet warranted by the approval of the Academy as
d whole And there are few of the individual mem
bers of the Academy who do not unhes1tatngly
a host of words which they have not yet sanctioned
collectively. Thus it is that the Academy lags far
behind the best usage established by its own
members Thus also we see how futile was Rich
elieus effort to confde the of the language to
any BODY Of men. however competent or however
distinguished. No bikes can be set to the
flowing forces which ever broadening the
mon Speech at least artificial entertainments
effective for long. The sole restraint must be sought
in the cOnmOnsense the tact and the taste in which
Ben OlsOn and Molcre wisely put their trust.
There is significance in the fact that not few
Of the members of the French Academy employ
freely many phrases not approved by the august
tribunal which they belong. Many authors of
the most scholarly distinction have delighted to
keep their talk vigorous. even if their writing
ultrarefned Tennyson had a relish for the homely
vernacular and used the plainest words on occasion
finding keen delight in their unadorned dreCtness-
He told Carlyle that if any horseback.
any masterful Duke William should appear in
England to curb personal liberty, he'd soon feel
nv knife in his CUTS" And in Professor Peck's
recent and most admirable biography of Prescott
told of the fondness of that stately and
sonorous historian for the frank colloquialisms of
his section and Of his time No doubt Prescott
found in these snatches of slang a wholesome cor
receive for that JOhnsonian grandoquence toward
which he was tempted by his early training.
Professor Peck points out that in his first book.
the History of Ferdinand and Isabella" published
IN 1887, Prescott had not Yet emancipated himself
from that Journalism which had been inherited from
the eghteenth-century writer's and which Ameri-
cans, with the wonted conservatism of prOvncias
retained long after Engishmen had begun to write
with naturalness and simplicity" And in the
preface to the second series of the Bigelow Papers"
written thirty years after Prescotts first history
Lowell asserted that the great vice of American
writing and speaking studied of sim
picity, that in danger of coming to look
L