Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-08-07
HlLAlRE BELLoc
This is the second of the neU
series Of essays by this cete-
brdted aUriter.
ON INACCURAcY

since the appearance of that article
letters written to me privately, letters
written to the paper itself, written to
other papers, all saying: why. do
you talk about things you know nothing
of? You call it the Sixteenth Book ;
it is the Eighteenth Book" .
So far no letters have come either
to me or to the paper in question. Nor
has any one even written to any OF
the great daily papers on the subject.
So perhaps 1t will blow over. But my
mind returns TO the matter. Why did
! write sixteenth" when ] meant
Eighteenth? What is inaccuracy?
What are its sources? Whence does
1t spring? What makes one man more
inaccurate than another, and why is
one inaccurate in some things and not
in others? What the devil is it all,
anyhow?
7 KNOW very we'll why accuracy is
4 such an anxious matter with men.
of learning, it is easily and mechani-
cally attainable. 1t is no good man
trying. to be just in judgment about n
thing which he does not really know.
1t would be no good, for instance. my
trying to look learned through a just
Judgment of Russian poetry, because
l cannot read Russian. No man can
mechanically and as n matter of course
set himself right in all the major fac
tors of learning. But both he and
others can get references right, now
that there are so many printed books
of reference. And therefore men study
accuracy because they say to them
selves: Fool l may be, and ignorant
l may be, but anyhow ! can be accu-
rate-with the help of n public
library" And at the same time they
say to themselves: IF | am inaccu-
rate the biggest fool born can find me
out"
So far so good. / know we'll enough
why one bothers so absurdly about
accuracy in ssuchsdetails, or, to put it
otherwise, why mere slips of the pen
and misspellings frighten US so much.
But what I do not understand is how
and why they take place.
remember once writing n long book
about Paris-a long, long book to pay
my first quarter 'sTcnt as young man.
And in that book | found myself per-
pctually saying north" when | meant
south in the matter of the immortal
hillS-in the matter of the hill of the
university. l always talked of going
up that hill as going north" whereas
if you so up that hill you walk due
south.
And again. once wrote a very nice.
little. well limited, accurate and lucid
account of the Battle of Nascby (or
Marston Moor forget which, but
anyhow it was one of those two bat
tlcs). l knew the ground well. and
none the less | put left" for right"
and right" for left" all through.
And l knew n man once who, when
ever he went into a shop to buy razor
blades for his patent razor, always said
spCctS he was an ordinary man.
T WILL not attempt to solve the
L problem. 1t is not fatigue that does
it, still less it is real ignorance for
you will notice that a man is inaccu
rate about things that he knows thor
oughly well and that the mistakes he
makes are always of an absurd kind
which he would be the first to spot in
others; for instance, calling Noting
ham Northampton and the other way
about. All one can say Is that it hap
pens as variations happen in the gen
Grafton of animals or any other huke
COlllc SDu BulupS t..
lnaccuracy is a very powerful and
fruitful creator of things. 1t not only
creates legends it creates words
There are hosts and crowds of words
which have come in through the talent
of men for inacCuracy and through the
inspiration of inaCCuracy, which is
blown into men by this god OF whom
l speak. Hence, what is called
metathesis. the very fruitful parent oi
many admirable words from turmerit
to Hercules. Hence, also the natu:
ralization of French and other foreign
words. 1t is a pity, think that SC
much printing and the foolish pride o.
those who can read checks the process.
nowadays. live in hopes that it viii
not check the process for long and thai
our coming barbarism will return tC
these popular words.
"Chauffeur' should be "shover,' ;
and "asparagus" s"-which | like to hea,
called grass ss"-has, | hope. taken roo
forever as sparrow grass; a yer,
good name for it, for it is not a gras
and sparrows have no particular bon
with it. They well might have if the
only knew how good it was. but the
are stupid little beasts and good 70
nothing. And if you tell Ae that thus t
branch off upon the matter of sparrow
is disturbing to the reader, and tha
one ought to keep the main thread o
| ones discourse, | answer YOU with
book always well praised, aud in part
quite on the highest level called 'Th
Book of job" If you will read "Th
Book of job you will find that in th
catalogue Of strange beasts which tn
writer brings forward in defense of tn
majesty Of God he gets to the ostrich
But hardly has he mentioned the os
trich when the inanc habits of tha
enormous fowl prove too much for him
| He forgets all about God and creatio,
and the rest of it and allows himsel
little separate diatribe against th
idiocy of the ostrich before gettin
back to his theology. So | with spar
rows.
And now that have taught YOU thi
lesson from Job ! will return to tL
matter Of inaCcuracy.
TNACCURACY is also the breeder nc
l. only of good native phrases, but G
excellent tales. like the well rubbed
polished, ancient and now immutabl
story of the boy in buttons who &c
nervous at the grandeur of the bisho
and said when the sleepy bishop aske
who was knocking: Its the Lore
my boy"
And inaccuracy is the parent also {
that still older and still more i'm
mutable story about the Pyramids {
Egypt and their builders, which / can
not print here.
1t was inaccuraCy which made ii
guide book man so angry at the phras
"Our Lord God the Pope" his trans
lation of "Divus Papa" put before II
title of some canonized pope of Il
past. -
And it was inaCcuracy which mac
the medieval story teller talk of Il