Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-29

| There are some very curious beliefs
| held by many intelligent persons as to
| the proper use of the English language.
| These came about because in the
majority of cases the grammarians at
one time got the upper hand in the
! fight between usage and grammar.
| Those whose natural bent made them
prefer rules TO life tended to put the
! language into a straitjacket Of thou
| shalt nots." so that thousands of i'm
| pressionable subjects fell under the
sway of these prohibitions.
Thus the notion that it is incorrect,
or at least inelegant, to place PROPOSE
| ton or adverb at the end of a clause or
sentence still holds sway with many
| persons.
It is simply a case of not having
| drunk deep enough of the Pierian
| spring. as Pope phrased it. A deeper
acquaintance with the language would
| convince them. as it did Woodrow Will
| son, that there is no more typically
| English construction than this. nor one
more universally used by the best
writer's.
| Yet has not every one been told at
some time or other in his school days
| that to end a sentence with a preposl-
| ton was wrOng2
The teacher was teaching grammar.
that was all; not English, for English
is above grammar-that is, the genius
of the language is such that it refuses
to be bound too closely by rules.
What is right in one age becomes
incorrect in another. Often the vulgar
word of a past age loses its evil con-
notatlons, becoming correct for later
ages.
Reading in Logan Pearsall Smiths
q
discussion of this very matter. 1t
proved very pleasing, because it upheld
our position, taken years ago without
authority.
1t had always seemed to us that the
use of a proposition at the end of a
sentence was a more logical construc-
ton. resulting in more beautiful SEN
tenCe than the labored use of which"
Il am sending you this book to re-
member me by is much better English
than Il am sending you this book by
which to remember me-" The former
has something delicate, wistful, about
it, which the latter lacks.
Logan Pearsall Smith will be remem-
bered as the author of those two de-
lghtful books of vignettes. Trivia"
and More Trivia" His studies in the
English language are no less inter-
eSting.
LIE dlJSUlpO 10 SulOICS all lucdl VI
grammatical purity on our language"
he says, has inflicted upon it serious
injury. The point I refer to is the
notion that it is illiterate and incorrect,
or at least inelegant, to place a PROPOSE
ton or adverb at the end of clause or
sentence.
1T was Dryden himself, one of the
most idiomatic of our writers, who first
expressed this notion, and in reprinting
his 'Essey on Dramatic Poesy' he took
pains to eliminate idioms of this kind,
changing the end he aimed at into
the end at which he aimed and the
age I live in to the age in which I
live ETC."
Prof Smith goes on to say that this
notion that the proposition should pre-
cede the word 1t governs became little
by little almost universally accepted.
1t was believed better to say THE
man to whom had written" than 1.-THE
man I had written to-"
The author of Trivia continues:
This notion still persists, although
the idiom is perfectly good English, and
has only been condemned because it
was not found in Latin or in languages
derived from Latin"