^ym^ ^I^K- ■ I--, •l^-- ;»<;:,,;.;..e,v CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY _ Cornell University Library PE 1611.W72 Our dictionaries and other Englisli iangu 3 1924 027 441 140 M ^ Cornell University VM Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027441140 Camcatdoe OXFOBJ3, ASiMsrofCamiri^f ASchoUr of Oxfinl. I.— Frontispiece of The New World of English Words. By Edward Phillips. First Edition.— J^. OUR DICTIONARIES AND OTHER ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS- BY R. O. WILLIAMS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1890 (X) A -3 2^^ so UNlVEHOrrYj Copyright, T890, BY HENRY HOLT & CO. jr TO F. E. K. 1840-84. CONTENTS. I. The Growth of Our Dictionaries, . i II. The Word " Metropolis " as Used in England and America, . . 45 III. Some Peculiarities Real and Supposed in American English, . . .67 IV. Good English for Americans, . . 97 V. Cases of Disputed Propriety and of Unsettled Usage 129 VI. Indexes, 161 FRONTISPIECES AND TITLE PAGES. PAGE Frontispiece of the New World of English Words. (First Edition). By E. P. Frontispiece. Title Page. — An English Expositour. By J. B. lo " A New English Dictionary. By J. K i6 Frontispiece. — Dictionarium Domesticum. By N. Bailey, 20 THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. EXPLANATORY NOTE. The date given after the title or name of a dictionary is that of the first edition, unless oth- erwise stated. In some instances it has been possible to determine the year of the first edition from matter contained in the copy or copies examined. When it could not be ascer- tained by inspection, I have followed in most cases Mr. Henry B. Wheatley's " Chrono- logical Notices of the Dictionaries of the English Language " (Transactions of The Phil- ological Society [England], 1865); but I have used also the " Bibliographical List of the Works illustrative of the various Dialects of English" prepared by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, and published in the Trans- actions of The English Dialect Society. Dr. Worcester's interesting sketch of English lexi- cography and extensive catalogue of English dictionaries have been consulted. Some very valuable information has been found in scat- 3 4 EXP LAN A TOR Y NO TE. tered memoranda published in Notes and Queries (London). Two or three dates have been taken from the "Dictionary of National Biography" (New York and London, 1889). But I would make special and very grateful acknowledgment of information and suggestions received from Addison Van Name, Esq., Libra- rian, and Franklin JBowditch Dexter, Esq., Assistant Librarian, of Yale University. I am indebted to the Rev. Cornelius Ladd Kitchel, of Yale University, for very kindly suggesting corrections in the manuscript of this sketch. Mr. Kitchel has read, for the same purpose, the other parts also of this small volume — except the last article. The quotations from prefaces and definitions have been copied in all cases directly from the dictionaries cited, and the criticisms I have made on any book mentioned have been sug- gested always by an actual and reasonably care- ful examination of its contents. R. O. Williams. New Haven, Ct., June, 1890. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. A good many dictionaries were printed in the sixteenth, and some in the fifteenth, century. Many of them were admirable examples of the printer's art. The lexicons thumbed by students now cannot be compared with some of the early ones as to beauty of type and press worlg.^- Besides Greek and Latin, there were Hebrew and Arabic lexicons in the sixteenth century, and dictionaries of several of the modern lan- guages. In the seventeenth century special dictionaries, as of etymology and technical terms, were numerous. Prominent among these, in England, were Cowel's "Interpreter" (1607), a law dictionary ; Spelman's " Glossarium Archaiologicum " (1626, vol. i.) ; and Skinner's " Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanse " (1671). The " Interpreter " was not allowed to interpret long. Upon the instigation of Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and a 5 6 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. complaint made by the House of Commons, James I., three years after the publication of the "Interpreter," suppressed it, because its legal doctrines were alleged to be prejudi- cial to the royal prerogative and the com- mon law of the realm. The "Interpreter," however, was reprinted in many editions sub- sequently, and has remained until the present time a standard authority in the interpretation of old legal terms. Skinner's " Etymologicon " supplied a great part of the etymologies adopted by Johnson. " The New World of English Words : Or A General Dictionary : . . . Col- lected and published by E. P." (Edward Phillips) (1658), was not a general English dictionary, in the sense in which that name is now understood, but a dictionary of English words that were considered difficult, either on account of their technical use or foreign origin.* It included also mythological and place names. The title was suggested by Florio's Italian-English dic- tionary; named by its author, "A Worlde of *In the fourth edition, folio, the title is: "The New World of Words, Or a General English Dictionary." The frontispiece of the fourth edition contains portraits of Bacon and Sidney. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 7 Wordes " (1S98), and, in a later edition, " Queen Anna's New World of Words " (161 1). Phillips was a nephew of Milton, but he could write most courtier-like dedications and inscriptions. His " New World of Words " became popular, and passed through many editions. The fourth edition (1678) gives a very interesting " COLLEC- TION of such affected words from the Latin or Greek, as are either to be used warily, and upon occasion only, or totally to be rejected as Bar- barous, and illegally compounded and derived." Most of these " affected words " never got a footing in English, but yet we find in the list autograph, aurist, bibliography, evangelize, fero- cious, inimical, misanthropist, and some others, which have come into more or less general use. One must regret that so useful a word as onology, — " a talking like an Ass " — has gone into obliv- ion. The dictionary making of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries was character- ized by a great deal of rivalry and detraction, — more even than now. Thomas Blount, the com- piler of the " Glossographia " (1656), thought Phillips was too free with other people's work, and too careless with his own, so he " showed bim up " in a critical commentary (1673), en- 8 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. titled, " A World of Errors discovered in the New World of Words." Side by side with the big and ambitious special dictionaries of the seventeenth century were some little ones, also special in plan and scope, intended to be used as handy books for reference. The main design of the earlier books of this class, as originally issued, was to give the spelling and meaning of difficult words — so called, that is, words used mostly in books or in the artsl As the rivalry of books available for this purpose increased, their titles became more pretentious; to catch the favorable attention of buyers the same book, however small, put forward with exaggerated assertion both general and specific claims. An interpreter of hard words became " a general English dictionary " by the addition of names of places and heathen divinities, tables of weights and measures, or other special mat- ters. As late as the beginning of the eighteenth century there does not seem to have been in existence any book which had for its design the definition in English of the English words in gen- eral use. There were books which defined or gave the equivalents of such English words in the words of other modern languages, and in THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 9 Latin ; but a general English dictionary, big or little, in the sense we use the name, does not seem to have been y6t attempted.* It will be worth while to notice some of the little books which may be regarded as forerunners of general English dictionaries. Perhaps the earliest dictionary of hard words was Robert Cp^drey's. The copy in the Bodle- ian Library, mentioned by Mr. Wheatley,t is dated 1604. I take only the main part of the title, which is long for a small book : A Table Alphabeticall, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and understanding of hard usuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greek, Latine, or * Mr. Wheatley in his " Chronological Notices " says : " Although a polyglot it [Minsheu's " Guide into the Tongues," i6i7],is a true English Dictionary, and the other languages are only inserted to illustrate and explain English words. ..." A reference to some of the common, every-day words of English speech, as hatte (hat), shoe, sweet, good, etc., will show that this remark ought to be qualified. So far as the " Guide into the Tongues " was an English dic- tionary, it was a special, not a general one. Common Eng- lish words were generally not defined in it in English, and were inserted for the sake of their equivalents in other languages. Minsheu's book, however, was a Wonderful production. t In a memorandum contributed to Notes and Queries, (London), 6th Series, vol. iii., p. 269. lo ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. French, &c., with the interpretation thereof by plaine English words, gathered for the benefit and helpe of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or other unskilfull persons. But the most famous of the interpreters of difificult words is Dr. Bulloker's " Expositour" (1616), — partly because it was supposed for a good while to be the earliest of them, and partly because it had a long run of popular favor. There were many editions, some of them made more than a century after the first one. Even after the Expositour had been " very much augmented," this " Compleat Dictionary" was but a little book that one might carry in a waist- coat pocket. But there is much in it that is curious. Sometimes a definition discloses some- thing historically interesting, as the following : Umbrel. a kind of round and broad Fan, where- with the Indians ( & from them our great ones, espe- cially women) preserve themselves from the heat of a scorching Sun. An important feature of the Expositour was a vocabulary of common, simple words translated into scholastic ones, for the use of those who wanted to express themselves in fine language. It was added to the earlier book by " A Lover of the Arts," after the publication of Cockeram's AN ENGLISH EXPOSITOUR. Or Compleac DICTIONARY: TEACHING The Interpretation of the hai-deft Vfotds, and moH; ufefuU terms of Art, ufed in our Language. Firft fct forth By y. B. D' of Phyfick. And nnwthe .Seven, h time Revifed, Correfled, and very much augmenced with feveral Additions, V!\i A new and copious Snpply of Words. An Indtx direfiing to the hard Words, by prefixii^ the common Words before them in an Alphabetical Order. AbriefM'omeKc/ftisr, containing the Nar.tes of. th; tnoft renowned Perfons among the Ancienis, vrhether Oods and Goddefles ( fo reputed) Heroes, or laventCUti' of profitable Arts, Sciences and Faculties. With divers memorable things oiif of ancieAt Hifior/^ Pcttrj, Pbdofiphyyuud Geografhj. By a Lover of the Arts. CAMBRIDGE^ Priftted by ^ob» Htyer. Printer to thcUnivetCty, and are to be fold by H. Stwbriigc at the Bible' on Ludgxtc-h\\\, Londin. i^^. II. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. n dictionary. " The English Dictionary : or An Interpreter of Hard English words," By H(enry) C(ockeram), Gent. (1623), was similar in character to the Expositour, and even smaller in size. The author urges those who want to get the full value of the book to look for words in the right places : Only by the way, I would intreat thee, gentle Reader, that thou wouldst have a care to search every word according to the true Orthography thereof ; as for Physiognomic in the letter/*, not mF, for Cynicall in Cy, not Ci. There is a vocabulary in it, similar to the one in the revised Expositour, for those who want to write learnedly. Larger than these was Thomas Blount's " Glossographia : or A Dictionary inter- preting all such hard words ... as are now used in our refined English Tongue " (1656). Twenty years later appeared "An English Dictionary Explaining the difficult Terms that are used in Divinity, Husbandry, (etc.) ... By E. Coles, Schoolmaster, and Teacher of the Tongue to For- eigners " (1676). The maker seems fond of dis- quisition, and discourses in his preface like a man who has been used to having things his own way in his class-room. He attributes differences of 12 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. national traits to differences of climate, and assigns to each of the principal nations and languages of Europe its characteristic. The Spanish and the Spaniard both are Grave, the Italian a.nA Italians A.raoro\is,t\\e Dutch [German lan- guage] as boisterous as the Germans, and the French as light as they themselves are. But English is about right. Getting down, however, to what has been done by his country- men in the dictionary way he becomes displeased. He knows " the whole succession from Dr. Bul- loker to Dr. Skinner, from the smallest Volume to the largest Folio," and reviews and dismisses with brief severity their several faults. For a man who had Coles's feelings about dictionaries and dictionary makers from Dr. Bulloker to Dr. Skinner, there was nothing to do but to make a dictionary himself " containing Many Thousand of Hard Words (and Proper Names of Places) more than are in any other English Dictionary or Expositor," which by and by he did. His volume is a small and rather closely printed octavo, three columns in a page. It certainly contains a great many more vocabulary words than Dr. Bulloker's " Expositour," or even Dr. Skinner's " Etymologicon," with the latter of THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 13 which it cannot properly be compared, as their fields are different. Three other special dictionaries are worth men- tioning. Cocker's English Dictionary (1704) was published from the author's manuscript, after his death, by John Hawkins. It is an interpreter of difficult words. It was considerably enlarged and altered by Hawkins in the second and third editions, so that its character was somewhat changed. The third edition is largely taken up with " Historical Remarks upon the Lives and Actions of Emperors, Popes, Kings, Queens, Princes, with a great number of other Persons of Note, both in the former and latter Ages of the World." A good deal of space is given to place names. Hawkins's opinion of the book as improved by himself is expressed by the brief comment, standing in a separate line, in the title page : The like never yet Extant. An anonymous dictionary having' a title sug- gestive of Blount's Glossary was published in 1707, viz.: " Glossographia Anglicana Nova: or A Dictionary Interpreting such Hard Words of whatever Language, as are at present used in the English Tongue, with their Etymologies, Defini- 14 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. tions, &c";— "very useful," the title page says, "to all those that desire to understand what they read." This work is often catalogued by booksellers, and sometimes in libraries, as Blount's Glossary. It seems to have been the first English dictionary in which definitions were illustrated pictorially. The few words illustrated belong to heraldry. Priority in this innovation has been erroneously credited * to the second volume of Bailey's Dictionary, published six years after Bailey's first dictionary, and twenty years after the " Glossographia Anglicana Nova." John Kersey's " Dictionarium Anglo-Britanni- cum: or A General English Dictionary," (1708) was a dictionary of hard words. There are a few words of every-day life in it, — as, " Cat, a well-known Creature," " Dog, a well-known Crea- ture, also an Andiron," — but only a few. His rule in regard to such words seems to have been to put them in only when they appeared in the compounds which he defined, otherwise to leave them outs Sometimes he inserted them if they had secondary meanings to be defined. A gen- * By Mr. Wheatley, " Chronolog[ical Notices," — Trans- actions, pp. 245, 285. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 15 eral dictionary, as we understand the name, was not really any part of his plan. Small dictionaries which contain almost all the common words of the language, besides a good many that are not common, are such familiar books in this age, that we naturally think such a book must have been the beginning of English lexicography. If all the English dictionaries now in existence were suddenly destroyed, the people who set about repairing the loss would try to make first, I think, one of these small compre- hensive dictionaries which aim to give all the common English words. But we have seen that dictionary making did not really begin in that way. The lack of such a book was not the want which was felt most ; at any rate those who tried to supply what was needed did not think it worth while to make books of that kind. Down to the beginning of the eighteenth century, the dictionary intended for popular use was the dictionary of hard words. But one may ask, how did people know how to spell com- mon words, if they were "not in the dic- tionary " ? Common words are often hard to spell. How did they get along without an 1 6 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. accepted guide and standard for reference ? Well, those who had good training in schools got along pretty well. Probably they were much drilled in writing passages read aloud from authors whose usage (or the usage of whose printers) was taken as the right way. Spelling books existed in the seventeenth century, but were not common, and probably were not much used. Learning to write and learning to spell, no doubt, went on together. There is far less difference of usage in the orthography of educated people of that period than one would expect from the condition of the times. The illiterate, however, had things their own way in spelling ; private judgment was the rule, whether one liked it or not. People could not conform to what they had no knowl- edge of. Now it was to meet the wants of illiterate persons who did not know how to spell even common words that the first general Eng- lish dictionary was made, — or what seems to have been the first. The title of the first edition dif- fered somewhat from that of the second, and really expressed its scope and purpose better. A New English Dictionary ; Or A Compleat Col- lection of the Most Proper and Significant Words, commonly used in the Language ; with a short and A New E K G L I s tt DICTIONARY; Or, A Compleat COLLECTION Of the Moft Proper and Significant "Words, and Terms of Arc commonly ufed in the LANGUAGE; Wich a continued Short and Clear Expofitioo, The Whole digeftcd into Alphabetical Order ,• and chiefly dcfigned for the beiwfir of Young Scholars, Tradef- men, Artijicers, Foreigners, and ihc Femaie Sex, who would learn to fpelJ truly j being fo fitced to every Capacity, that it may be a ready and continual Help to all chat want an Inftrudcr. As alfo Three ufcful Tables, Vji^. I. Of Proper Names of Men, efpecially thofe chat arccon- taincd in the Holy Bible, fliewing their true Original and Derivation. II. Of Proper Names of Women, with the fame Explication. III. Of Nick-names or Englifti Chi-iftian Names abbre- viated or made fliort. T/ic Second Edition carcfulLy f^vijed, mth many Important Ad- ditions and Improvements, — -— London : Printed for Ro^(rt Knaplockj at the Bijhop's Heady and R, and J. Bonwkkey at the Red Lion, in St. P«»/'s Church Yard. 1713. III. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 17 clear Exposition of Difficult Words and Terms of Art. ... By J. K. London, 1702. The title page further explains that the work is "chiefly designed for the benefit of young Scholars, Tradesmen, Artificers, and the female sex, who would learn to spell truely." And the preface emphasizes the announcement by saying : The main design of it then, is to instruct Youth an4 even Adult Persons, who are ignorant of the Learned Languages, in the Orthography, or true manner of Spelling, Reading and Writing in their Mother Tongue. And again : 'Tis also altogether needless to insist upon the ap- parent usefulness of this small Volume, to all Persons who are not perfectly Masters of our most elegant Speech ; or on the assistance it gives to young Scholars, Tradesmen, Artificers, Foreigners and- others ; and particularly to the more ingenious Prac- titioners of the Fkmale Sex, in attaining to the true Sense and method of Spelling such Words, as' from time to time, they are disposed to make use of on any Occasion. This is clear enough, except the reference to " the more ingenious practitioners of the Female Sex " ; but its explanation will be found, I think, in the fact, that, in the class of people for whom the book was chiefly designed, the knowledge of writing was less common i8 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. among women than among men. Knowing how to write, I take it, was not a general accomplish- ment among the wives and daughters of artifi- cers and small trades-people in the year 1702. It would be a legitimate stretch of compliment in those days, in speaking of women who made so much use of writing that they needed to know how to spell, to call them "the more ingenious practitioners of the female sex " ; — at least, it would in a book preface. But women spell better than men now. In the spelling matches which had such a run fifteen or twenty years ago, girls, or young women, if I remember rightly, carried off the best honors. The initials J. K. in the title page of the " New English Dictionary " suggest John Kersey as its maker; but while a few of the definitions are identical with those in Kersey's " Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum," the treatment of the body of the material is so different as to indicate a different hand. At any rate, if Kersey made it, he did not care to claim it. His name appears in full in the title page of the " Dictionarium," but only the initials J. K. are found in the five known editions of the " New English Dictionary," although four of them appeared after the Die- THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 19 tionarium.* There is not so much in J. K.'s dictionary that is odd and fantastical, as in Bul- loker's Expositour. Some of the definitions of familiar things would be thought too vague now, as : " yl fork, a well-known instrument ; A horse, a labouring beast ; A camel, a beast of burden ; A cat, a well-known creature." Etymologies are usually omitted. The vocabulary (second edition), printed in three columns, covers nearly one hundred and fifty pages of about the size of the Leisure Hour page, — a little longer. A rough calculation indicates that it contains between nine and ten thousand defined words. The publication of " An Universal Etymolog- ical English Dictionary " (172 1), by N. Bailey, marks an important advance in English lexicog- raphy. Bailey was a man of learning and much literary ability. There is no pleasanter reading to-day, for a half-hour, than his translation of the Colloquies of Erasmus. He was a busy worker, and made, besides extensive additions under various forms to his dictionary, several other books, among them one about " The Antiquities of London and Westminster " (1726), and a sort of * See Notes and Qfteries (London), Sixth Series, vol. iii., p. 162. 20 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. alphabetical recipe book entitled " Dictionarium Domesticum, Being a New and CompLeat Hous- hold Dictionary, For the Use both of City and Country " (1736). Some of the medicinal con- coctions recommended in the " Houshold Dic- tionary " might have come from the witches' cal- dron. Medicinal prescriptions were an impor- tant part of domestic recipe books in that day, and the assumption in making them seems to have been, that the more incongruous and repul- sive the mixture the greater its remedial virtues. But sometimes cures were very simple, espec- ially in the case of disorders which since then have been regarded as the most obstinate. Here is one which made the " Houshold Dictionary " cheap at any price : For Lunacy or Madness. — Boil three large hand- fuls of ground ivy shred small, in two quarts of wine, till there is but one third part remaining ; then strain it and add to it six ounces of the best sallad oil ; boil it up to an ointment, shave the patients head, warm this ointment and chafe his head with it. " This " — with more ivy outside and in — " is Dr. Wadenfields remedy- with which a person is said to have cured 60 lunatick persons." The following is more strictly domestic. It ought to be tried in California and Italy : ^fe^^Bsift; ^mtu/e-uZ/iJ— THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 21 Fleas, to Kill. — Rub a small stick with the grease of a hedge hog and fix it in the middle of the room and all the fleas, as some say, will flock to it and perish. There is not so much of such material, how- ever, in Bailey's " Dictionarium Domesticum " as in the other books of its class which preceded it. But the book which made Bailey famous was his " Etymological Dictionary," — not on account of its etymologies, but because it was the first Eng- lish dictionary which was both general in its plan and tolerably comprehensive in its execution. Bailey's place in English lexicography is so con- spicuous that it is worth while to notice some of the characteristics of his work. Like its predecessors the " Universal Etymo- logical English Dictionary " makes the interpre- tation of difificult words a prominent feature in the title page and in the body of the book ; un- like its predecessors, however, — except J. K.'s " New English Dictionary " — the common words of every day are included within its scope. Names of places and countries are sometimes inserted, but usually omitted. The names of men and women — as James, John, Clara, Jane, Dorothy, Priscilla — are scattered alphabetically through the vocabulary like other words. This 22 ENGLISH LAl^GUAGE TOPICS. odd peculiarity is found in Phillips's " New World of Words "; but Phillips explains their meaning. A number of current proverbs are introduced in like manner, and made the topics of rather lengthy discourse for a dictionary. The personal element, which was strong in Bailey's work, finds free rein in their explanation. Here are a couple of examples : l^je 5ict5 tftje ^Dfje txr %iis,'jfi Ms CSjcjcsjc. This Proverb reflects upon the ill Conduct of Men in the Management of their Affairs, by intrusting either Sharpers with their Money, Blabs with their Secrets, or Enemies or Informers with their Lives j For no Obli- gation can bind Siga.\nsi Nature : A Fose \v\\\ love a Goose still, though his Skin be stript over his Ears for it ; and a Common Cheat will always follow his old Trade of tricking his Friend, in spite of all Promises and Principles of Honour, Honesty, and good Faith. This is sound sense expressed with the racy vigor which should belong to a translator of Erasmus. The next one has some of the charac- teristics of the other, but is not as good : This is a saucy Proverb, generally made use of by pragmatical Persons, who must needs be censuring their Superiors, take Things by the worst Handle, and carry them beyond their Bounds ; for the Peasants THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 23 may look at and honour Great Men, Patriots, and Po- tentates, yet they are not to spit in their Faces. Those who think that science always advances and never retrogrades should compare Bailey's definition of Heat with the scientific explana- tion of it taught in the schools of Europe and America more than a hundred years later. This is Bailey's definition of Heat : Heat (according to the new philosophy) very much consists in the Rapidity of Motion, in the smaller Parts of Bodies, and that every Way ; or in the Parts being rapidly agitated all Ways. Its operation upon the Senses we call Heat, and is estimated according to its Relation to the ■ Organs of Feeling ; Which Motion of its small Parts, must be brisk enough to increase or surpass that of the Parties of the Sentient ; for if it be more weak or languid, it is said to be cold. The same opinion was held by Locke, by Bacon, and by many others earlier than they. Bailey's Dictionary went through a great many editions, in the course of wfiich it was very greatly changed and enlarged by the author and later compilers. It remained the chief English dictionary until the publication of Johnson's in 1755- So much has been written about Johnson's Dictionary that I will pass over it briefly. It 24 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. was a formidable affair in two huge folios, as first issued. It is doubtful if the number of words in it exceeded the number in the edition of Bailey of the same year ; but far greater space was given to the definitions, which were often unnecessarily divided. The most remarkable characteristic of the book, however, consisted in the very numerous illustrative examples cited from English writers. The examples collected by Johnson have formed the main stock of the citations used by subsequent dictionary makers. If you see the definition of a word illustrated in a dictionary of the present day by a passage from Dryden or Swift, and the same sense illus- trated in a rival dictionary by a passage from Locke, Bacon, or Sir Roger L' Estrange, turn to Johnson and you will find, in most cases, both quotations, and sometimes several more. The element of personal feeling and conviction which entered largely into the first edition of Johnson's Dictionary has given much amusement to critics and book collectors. Such a quality is certainly out of place in a dictionary. But no one who is capable of generous enthusiasm can read those parts of the preface where Johnson speaks of the difficulties and discouragements which con- THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 25 fronted his undertaking, without a throb of admiration for the great brave heart that sur- mounted them. Beset by poverty and disease — "with little assistance of the learned, and with- out any patronage of the great " — he toiled with unflinching persistence and industry to its com- pletion. Nor could achievement have its best reward. " I have protracted my work," he writes pathetically, " till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds." Johnson's Dictionary supplied the great body of material of other English dictionaries follow- ing it until the publication of Webster's. The most valuable editions of Johnson's Dictionary as revised and enlarged by other workers, are the two edited by the Rev. H. J. Todd (1818, 1827). Latham's Dictionary — so called — is said in the title page to be " founded on that of Dr. Samuel Johnson, as edited by the Rev. H. J. Todd, M.A." This use of founded. — if one examines the body of the work — is an extension of its sense not noted in any of the dictionaries. If some one should fill up some crevices in the great pyramid, then re-name the structure after himself, and say of it " founded on the pyramid v^ 26 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. of Cheops," his use of founded would be quite similar to Mr. Latham's. In the course of the fifty years following the publication of the first edition of Johnson's Dictionary many other dictionaries appeared which (with some unsuccessful exceptions) were in the main Johnson's Dictionary, or abridg- ments of it, in a new dress. Yet some of the additions to his work were valuable ; the vocab- ulary was extended, and, what was far more important, a more complete and definite system of indicating pronunciation attempted. The most popular of the works which made pronun- ciation a distinct aim was Walker's Dictionary (1791) ; it was very widely accepted as a standard of pronunciation both in England and America. Walker's Dictionary remodeled by Smart was published in 1836. A dictionary (1780) by Thomas Sheridan (father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan) is an interesting attempt to express by phonetic re-spelling the pronunciation which the maker considered was sanctioned by the best usage. Every word in the vocabulary is re- spelled, and its vowel sounds are indicated by references to key words. Sheridan's system was no doubt too simple to meet the complex require- THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES.' 27 ments of an exact pronouncing dictionary, but its defects can be supplied to a great extent from analogy. As actor and elocutionist, Sheridan had given nauch attention to the analysis of vocal speech, and though he reached very crude results, as a whole, compared with what have been at- tained since, it is to be noted that the great dic- tionaries recently issued or revised have discarded in some cases the conclusions of later authorities and have gone back to Sheridan's analysis. Richardson's Dictionary in two volumes quarto (1836-7) is better adapted to the wants of schol- ars and literary people than for popular use. The definitions occupy but little space, and are of trifling value ; but the body of examples cited from the English classics illustrating the meaning of words is better than in any dictionary preced- ing it. The examples are arranged for the most part chronologically, so that changes of form and sense can be traced progressively, and this can be done with the more convenience, because a family of words having the same primary are grouped together, instead of being separated alphabeti- cally. The vocabulary, howeves, is quite inade- quate for general purposes. 28 • ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. The first American dictionary mentioned in Dr. Worcester's catalogue is the following: " 1798 (about) Johnson and Elliot. — A School Dictionary." There is probably a confusion here of the two books named below. The School Dictionary was a dictionary of hard words, and in size smaller even than Bulloker's or Cockeram's. Curiously enough the maker was Samuel Johnson, Junior — a name in the title page which one might suspect to be " bogus," were not the evidence of its genuineness quite certain. It was published in 1798 or '99. The title page is without date, but the preface to the dictionary by Elliott and Johnson (dated January ist, 1800) speaks of " the favourable reception with which the School Dictionary met, the last year," If this preface was really written some time before its date, as prefaces often are, there might natu- rally be an oversight as to the length of the inter- val between the two books, so that the date of the School Dictionary is perhaps 1798 instead of '99. The title page reads as follows : A School Dictionary, Being a Compendium ^ /j%« Latest and most Improved Dictionaries. Comprising an Eq,sy and Concise Method of teaching Children the true meaning and pronunciation of the most useful THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 29 words in the English Language, Not attainable by common School Books: In which the parts of Speech are distinguished and explairud, and a general rule is given for spelling derivatives, and compound words. — By Samuel Johnson, Jun'r. Published according to Act of Congress. New Haven : Printed and sold by Edward O'Brien, who holds the copy- right for the States of Connecticut and New York.* This small dictionary was followed in 1800 by a larger work similar in character, — " A selected pronouncing and accented DICTIONARY, Com- prising a Selection of the choicest Words found in the best English Authors. . . . By John Elli- ott, Pastor of the Church in East-Guilford, and Samuel Johnson, jun'r. Author of the School Dictionary. Suffield : 1800."* There are print- ed in this dictionary several pages of recommen- dations signed, " Hon. Chauncey Goodrich, Esq., Hon. Jona. Brace, Esq., Hon. Elizur Goodrich, Esq.," Theodore D wight, Esq., Simeon Baldwin, Esq., Noah Webster, Jun'r, and with other well- known names, f * Added to the library of Yale College, 1886. t The New England custom of using Esquire with Hon- ourable was noted by Pickering. " Esquire. — In America this is often joined with the title of Honourable, Ex. The Honourable A. B. Esquire. It is never thus used in England In Massachusetts they 30 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Noah Webster's " Compendious Dictionary of the English Language" (twelvemo — 1806), and his large work in two volumes quarto, " An American Dictionary of the English Language" (1828), were products of the very strong national feeling which had rapidly grown up in the lib- erated colonies. One can get an idea of the strength of that feeling by glancing at almost any books taken at random from the American publications of that period. Belief in the grand future of the United States is the key note of everything done and said. All things Ameri- can are to be grand — our territory, population, products, wealth, science, art, — but especially our political institutions and literature. The unbounded confidence in the material develop- say in their Proclamations, ' By his Excellency Caleb Strong Esquire.' .... Another English friend has informed me that in the British West Indies they use Esquire with Hon- ourable, as we do." — "A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to The United States of America." ... By John Pickering. Boston: 1816. It seems that the usage is, or was, Scotch. — ". . . . the Honourable James Durie, Esq." — " .... the Honourable Henry Durie, Esq." — Robert Louis Stevenson — " The Mas- ter of Ballantrae" (Summary of Events during the Master's Second Absence). THE. GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 31 ment of the country which now characterizes the extreme northwestern part of the United States prevailed as strongly throughout the eastern part of the Union during the first thirty years of the present century; and over and above a belief in, and concern for, materialistic progress, there were enthusiastic anticipations of achievements in all the moral and intellectual fields of national greatness. Without stopping to inquire here how far those expectations have been fulfilled, it is to be noted that. they existed, and that they worked as a sort of ferment through the whole mass of the people. Web- ster's " American Dictionary of the English Language " was a natural outcome of this pre- vailing tone of mind. Looking back now upon its beginnings we cannot help thinking that the undertaking was a very bold one; but the result is only one of the innumerable examples- where success is reached by what seems inadequate means, if the times are favorable. The ineffec- tiveness of English lexicography after Johnson left a broad opportunity for American enthusi- asm, talent, and industry. In the seventy years following the first publication of Johnson's Dic- tionary nothing had appeared which embodied a 32 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. general improvement of that work ; it had been bettered in one place or another by patches. Webster's American Dictionary had so much in it that was original, that it might properly be regarded as a new dictionary ; with all its crudi- ties, its definitions made it a very important contribution to English lexicography. In later editions many of these crudities were removed, and the whole work greatly enriched by the special knowledge of men distinguished in their respective departments of science. Joseph E. Worcester published several smaller dictionaries before the appearance of his well- known quarto in i860. The earliest of them (1827) was Chalmer's abridgment of Todd's John- son, with Walker's pronunciation. Worcester's dictionaries have followed English usage (so far as it is settled) more closely than Webster's have, but not strictly. The quarto was very far from being a mere reprint of English work ; it was an admirable extension and improvement of what had been done before on English lines. With the publication of Webster's and Wor- cester's dictionaries leadership in the lexicography of the English language passed for a while from England to America. These works were a long THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 33 step beyond what had been accomplished in England in dictionary making. They became a sort of mine for British lexicography to exploit — the more valuable, because their definitions of the words belonging to the arts and sciences were to a large extent the definitions of eminent experts. Only those who have minutely com- pared American dictionaries with some of the principal ones made in England since 1830, can have any just idea how freely English dictionary makers have used American material, and ap- propriated without proper acknowledgment the results of American work. One should distinguish between the earlier edi- tions of " The Imperial Dictionary," and the later edition revised and enlarged by Dr. Annan- dale. The latter contains a large amount of original matter, and is a valuable dictionary. It is in four large, handsomely printed octavo volumes. The pictorial illustrations are the best that have appeared in any dictionary, except the "Century." Its rival, " The Encyclopaedic Dic- tionary," is contained in seven volumes some- what smaller than those of the " Imperial." >-The Encyclopaedic Dictionary" abounds in 34 engush language topics. illustrative examples, cited from English Litera- ture, but its definitions are too minutely divided. There is sometimes no difference at all in the senses distinguished. The vocabulary is probably more extensive than that of any dictionary which preceded it. " The Century Dictionary," at the time of this writing, is not yet completed ; I shall therefore merely refer the reader to the notice of it which appeared in The Century Magazine, December, 1889. The evident conscientiousness of the brief account given there of this important and com- prehensive work must certainly have produced a very favorable impression on all who read it. " A New English Dictionaiy on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the ^ Materials Collected by The Philological Society," is so exceptional in its design, that it cannot be passed by, although very far indeed from com- pletion. The preface to Part I. of this stupen- dous undertaking is dated November, 1883, ^nd the preface to Part V. is dated October, 1889 ; so that about six years were spent, after the publi- cation of Part I., in bringing out Parts II., III., IV., and V. The prefaces to the several parts and to Volume I. supply material for finding THE GROWTH OF OVR DICTIONARIES. 3S the aggregate of words (35,026) treated in these four parts, and the relation whick such aggregate bears to the whole work after deducting Part I. It is about fifteen per cent.* If the same aver- age rate of progress should be kept up through- out, about forty years, therefore, will elapse between the issues of the first and last pages. This calculation is based on a supposed continu- ance of the average rate of progress reached in bringing out the Parts II., III., IV., and V.; but the peculiar circumstances under which the work is produced make conjectures and prognostica- tions as to its future progress, for any great length of time, quite untrustworthy. In one way or another a more rapid advancement may be attained.f One thing, however, is certain, that there is no natural tendency in dictionary making toward acceleration, — and the reason is, that the material to be examined, compared, and sifted for use is always rapidly accumulating, and that the things which must be kept in mind in * A uniform fullness of treatment throughout the work is assumed. + In the Preface to Volume One (consisting of words in A and B) the announcment is made that " there is reason- able ground to expect that the production of the work henceforth will be twice as rapid as it has been hitherto." 36 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. order to escape self-contradiction are constantly- multiplying. The mere invention of expedients which will help to preserve self-consistency is a great task, and the undeviating observance of them after they are invented a far greater one. The buoyancy of expectation which character- ized the writings which emanated from the man- agers of the " New English Dictionary " about the time of the appearance of Part I. seemed to show that its control and direction were in the hands of dictionary novices ; and some admis- sions as to its editing in the preface to Volume One, which will be noticed hereafter, would be explainable by that supposition. The value of the parts of the " New English Dictionary " which have already appeared is mainly philological.. I do not get the impression from reading the preface to Volume One, that the definitions of the terms of the sciences and arts are the systematic work of specialists in the same degree that such definitions are in Ameri- can dictionaries. One can conjecture, I think, without doing injustice to the undertaking, that the scientific assistance (outside of philology) has been sporadic. In fact, the Preface supplies some evidence that such has been the case. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 37 There seems to be an admission, in the acknowl- edgments of assistance in pages xii, xiii, that the specialists named in page xii have contributed their help only " occasionally, or for special words." Furthermore, the Preface (p. xiii) tells us : " It has not, as a rule, been possible to submit to contributors or revisers the articles for which their assistance was asked ; it will, therefore, be understood that none of the foregoing are responsible for the use made of their help in the Dictionary. If they have been misunderstood or misrepresented, the Editor alone must bear the blame." It may be safely said, that such defects of method in the making of any one of the great American dictionaries would be regarded here with astonishment. But the Preface contains no evidence that the impor- tance of admissions so damaging has been real- ized. Of course, the fallacious assumption in such editing is, that the philologist supervising the dictionary can distinguish perfectly what he knows .from what he does not know, and there- fore will be able to discriminate correctly the precise points where the specialists ought to be consulted "occasionally." But if the wisest people who have ever lived could have distin- 3^ . ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. guished what they knew from what they did not know, there would be far less error in the world than there is; and if everybody had such a faculty of discrimination, there would be no error at all — simply knowledge and ignorance. In the making of a fairly trustworthy dictionary, mere common prudence requires that all the terms of a science should be referred for defini- tion to somebody who has a scientific knowledge of that department ; and this I believe has been the system followed in making the large Ameri- can dictionaries. If a great amount of serious error does not stalk into the " New English Dictionary " through such processes of editing, then it will be the most wonderful product of exclusive intelligence that ever got into type. But to these probabilities of error should be added, also, the certainties of change in the meanings and relations of many scientific terms before the whole work can reach its reasonable completion. It is not probable, for example, that all the definitions of scientific terms found in A (even if they are quite right now) will agree with the definitions which the advance of the sciences will require by the time the " New English Dictionary " reaches W, By that time THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 39 some of the earlier results will be old and dis- placed. The defects of method already spoken of are very serious indeed ; but there seems to be another, far more important, which goes to the very root and fibre of the undertaking. The title page of the " New English Dictionary " in- forms the public that it is made on " historical principles." I am "A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles ; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society," is the allegation. Let us see what these " historical principles " amount to, and consider for a moment the materials to which they are applied. It is well known that in a great comprehen- sive dictionary which undertakes to support its definitions by the citation of actual, not imagin- ary, examples of the use of words, the correct- ness of the quotations must be the most impor- tant thing in the work. This is obvious to any user of the dictionary, and it is assumed by him that the greatest possible care has been taken by its compiler to make them trustworthy. But there is one thing about such quotations which is known to but few of those who rely on them. 4° ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. and that is the extreme difificulty of making them trustworthy. The clerical labor which has to be depended on for verifying the quotations must be quick-eyed, unremittingly vigilant, and in the highest degree conscientious. In fact, it has been found as a matter of experience, that even when the quotations in the proof hav^ been apparently verified by a most careful and con- scientious comparison of them with the actual text of the book itself cited, that even tlien they sometimes differ from that text and contain serious errors. Of course, the explanation of such errors is, that even the most vigilant re- visers sometimes become unobservant in the progress of the comparison, and fail to see differences which are directly before their eyes. Hence the settled plan in all well-conducted dictionary work is to take every reasonable pre- caution which will reduce the opportunities for error to a minimum. The importance of verifi- cation in all such work can be well illustrated by an extract from a letter by Mr. Fitzedward Hall which appeared in The Nation, May 26, 1 887. " IS BEING BUILT," ETC. To the Editor of the Nation : Sir : On this form of expression a reviewer THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 41 remarks, in your issue for March 17 : " Dr. Hall gives it a respectable age : he has found it as early as 1769. A look for it in [Mr. T. L. Kington] Oliphant shows examples in 1447-48." If the reviewer had turned to Mr. Oliphant's alleged authority, he would have seen something noticeably different there. Naming Shillingford's "Letters," Mr. Oliphant writes, in i., 273 : " In p. 92 there is a startling change of idiom, which did not become common until 300 years later ; being is prefixed to a past participle ; wyn is being y put to sale j this idiom is repeated in p. 100." Now, in Shillingford, pp. 91-92, there occurs : " Wyn by his officers ofte tymes being ther y put to sale," etc. And at p. 100 : " And so thei, being seised of the saide nywe tenements, made oute," etc. The interpolation by which Mr. Oliphant alters the. first quotation [etc.]. Mr. Oliphant's reputation as an industrious philologist is considerable ; yet, in half a dozen lines of his matter bearing on a philological ques- tion of great importance, there seem to be two very serious errors of fact — one a misquotation which involves a corruption of vital importance, the other a mis-statement as to text equally objectionable.* Now, in reading through the rather long preface * See notice of a comparison of Mr. Oliphant's statements with Shillingford's text in page 1-38 of this volume. 42 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. to this very ambitious dictionary " on historical principles," I have not found mention or sug- gestion of even an attempt to verify the exceed- ingly numerous quotations, divided into various classes, in every page. But, in reading the page or more of matter devoted to Quotations in the " General Explanations," I do find this extraor- dinary expression of a hope : " It is hoped that reasonable accuracy has been attained in dates and references : in the former, absolute accuracy is in many cases impossible, and, for the purposes of this work, not essential ; in the latter, errors are inevitable in the work of so many years and so many readers." Certainly such errors are inevit- able ; and therefore the most careful verification is indispensable to make the work of " so many readers " trustworthy. But even in the section devoted exclusively to the explanation of quota- tions there is not a hint of verification having' been attempted.* Does such lexicography ac- cord with " historical principles " ? And if we * On the contrary, there seems to be an admission that they have not been verified. In the passage already cited from the " General Explanations " there is a plain implica- tion that the references have not been verified, and if the references have not been, the presumption, of course, is that the quotations have not. THE GROWTH OF OUR DICTIONARIES. 43 look into the sources from which the quotations are derived, we shall see that large numbers of them never could be verified. We are informed in the Preface (p. vi), that the stock of quota- tions from which those in the dictionary are selected amounted, some time before the publi- cation of Part I., to about three and a half mil- lions,* and elsewhere the sources of the supply are indicated. It seems that they have come by tens of thousands from all quarters of the Eng- lish-speaking world ; they have i)een taken from every imaginable kind of literature, — books (hasty, pirated, mutilated editions often, no doubt), pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, — what not ? They are the contributions of very various degrees of intelligence and stupidity, knowledge and ignorance, care and carelessness. Evidently the whole mass (three and a half mil- lions), or even the larger part of it, could not be safely accepted as correct. But the very numer- ous selections from this miscellaneous heap, — perhaps their correctness has been established in * " In the course of three years a million additional quo- tations were furnished, raising the total number to about 3i millions, selected by about 1300 readers [members of The Philological Society ? ] from the works of more than 5000 authors of all periods." — Preface, page vi. 44 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. " The Scriptorium " ? The quotations in the completed parts of " A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles," are by. far the most valuable part of the work, if trustworthy. If they have been verified with such care as the cir- cumstances required, a knowledge of the fact would give great satisfaction to those who con- sult the dictionary ; if they have not been, its title is a misnomer. Matthew Arnold had a very low opinion. of English reference books. And, certainly, they are much inferior to similar books made in France. The methodical genius of the French shines in such productions. People who knew how extremely defective pretentious English works of this class are (the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for instance,) hoped that a great dictionary carrying the imprimatur of the Philo- logical Society of England would do much toward improving the methods of making all books of its kind, especially in the direction of reaching trustworthy results ; but it is question- able, at least, whether the " New English Dic- tionary" will not lower the standard for such work, even in England. THE WORD "METROPOLIS" AS USED IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 45 THE WORD METROPOLIS AS USED IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. Metropolis is one of our favorite words. New York is the metropolis of America; Chicago is the metropolis of the upper lake country and great food basin of the United States ; San Fran- cisco is the metropolis of our Pacific coast ; and any town or city that is considerably bigger and more bustling than its neighbors is the metropo- lis of a more or less extensive region. But Mr. Freeman comes and remarks : New York, by the way, calls itself a " metropolis " ; in what sense of the word it is not easy to guess, as it can hardly be because it is, along with Baltimore and several other cities, the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric. — " Some Impressions of the United States," p. 65.* Elsewhere Mr. Freeman stigmatizes metropolis when used of London or New York as " slang." * Some Impressions of the United States. By Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D. — Author's Edition. New York: 1883. 47 48 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. The words " metropolis " and " provinces," used in this way, I venture to call slang, whether the city which is set up above its fellows is London or New York. Anyhow this use of them is in no way dis- tinctively American ; indeed the misuse of the word " provinces " is, I fancy, excessively rare in America, and it is certainly borrowed from England. — " Some Points in American Speech and Customs," Long- man's Magazine, London, November, 1882. The explanation and drift of Mr. Freeman's remarks, so far as they relate to metropolis (which is the only word under consideration), will be understood at once, if we turn to Metropolis in the Rev. Walter W. Skeat's Etymological Dic- tionary. Metropolis, a mother city. (L.,-GK.) Properly ap- plied to the chief cathedral city ; thus Canterbury is the metropolis of England, but London is not, except in modern popular usage The adj. metropoli- tan (= Lat. metropolitanus) was in much earlier use having a purely ecclesiastical sense. The few passages cited by Mr. Skeat in sup- port of the foregoing opinion are not decisive ; but the fact, that both the adjective and noun, metropolitan, were well established in England be- fore metropolis was much used, if used at all, gives some probability to the supposition that metropo- lis was first employed there in an ecclesiastical THE WORD "METROPOLIS." 49 sense, viz: the official city qf^ an archbishop or metropolitan. In America we seem to have gotten far away from that or any similar mean ing. But some one thinks that Mr. Skeat con- ceded too much in allowing London to be a metropolis in any sense, for we find in the supple- ment to his dictionary mention of an objection to such a statement, and of his willingness to change it. Mr. Skeat's explarration is very inter- esting as an exhibition of candor. Mr. Skeat says : The statement ' except in modern popular usage' is objected to ; I am quite ready to give it up. I be- lieve I adopted the idea from an article in the Satur- day Review, written in a very decisive tone. Mr. Skeat's remark, as modified by himself, would, therefore, read : " Properly applied to the chief cathedral city ; thus Canterbury is the metropolis of England, but London is not "; — the " except in modern popular usage " being struck out. It is a matter of such common notoriety that London, in popular usage in England, is called " the metropolis," that it must be assumed, I think, that Mr. Skeat's correction of his remark referred to the propriety of such usage, and not 50 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. to its existence. The issues of the English press abound with examples of it. Turning to a par- tial catalogue of books in the Astor Library, I note within a range of thirty consecutive titles of books or reports about London, published in London, seven in which London is referred to by the words metropolis and metropolitan. The alternative titles are sometimes abbreviated, so that the instances of this use of these words are probably more numerous really than they appear in the catalogue. I will cite two, because it will be observed at once that the use of metrop- olis and metropolitan, as found in these titles, presupposes that the public is perfectly familiar with the application of these words to London. Leigh's new Picture of London ; or, A view of the political, religious, medical, literary, municipal, com- mercial and moral state of the British metropolis. London : 1834. Gordon, L. D. B. Short description of the plans of Capt. James Vetch for the sewerage of the metropolis. London : 1851. But Mr. Freeman regards metropolis, when used of London, as slang, and Mr. Skeat thinks such use improper. I will, therefore, cite some ex- amples of it from writers who were as likely as anybody to know what was required by propriety. THE WORD "METROPOLIS." 51 Of the metropolis, the City, properly so-called, was the most important division. — Macaulay, " History of England," c. iii. There is, indeed, no doubt that the trade of the metropolis then bore a far greater proportion than at present to the whole trade of the country. — lb. Metropolis, as so used, was a favorite word with Macaulay. I felt the fatal truth, that here was a ghostly cob- web radiating into all the provinces from the mighty metropolis. — De Quincey, " Suspiria de Profundis," Part I. By the laity of Milby and its neighbourhood he [Mr. Ely] was regarded as a man of quite remarkable powers and learning, who must make a considerable sensation in London pulpits and drawing-rooms on his occasional visits to the metropolis. — George Eliot, "Scenes of Clerical Life." "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton," c. iii. Examples from Thackeray and Dickens could be added to the foregoing, but both of those famous writers were rather fond of slang, and in questions of strict verbal propriety their author- ity (for other reasons also) would be ruled out. How far back in English literature metropolis has been used of London, and whether such use has been continuous to the present time, are interesting questions. From considerations 52 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. which will appear subsequently, I conjecture that it began to be so used soon after its introduction into English. The first instance which I have noted would be dated 1676, if the words quoted below from Elisha Coles's English Dictionary are found in the first edition of that work. Coles's Dictionary gives place names. The copy from which I quote is dated 1701. Coles briefly describes London as " the metropolis and epitome of England." The next example shows that the writer feels he is using a good word, well placed, and that his readers will appreciate it. It is from Bailey's "Antiquities of London and Westminster," third edition, 1734. There could be no finer specimen of a kind of boastful- ness which has been supposed to be peculiarly American. Bailey was the compiler of the " Universal, Etymological English Dictionary " (1721): London, the Metropolis and Glory of the Kingdom of England, the seat of the British Empire, m&y boast itself to be the largest in Extent, the fairest built, the most populous, and best inhabited of any in the whole World, and for a general Trade throughout the Uni- verse all others must give her the Precedence. — Antiquities, p. i. Dyche and Pardon's Dictionary (copy dated THE WORD "METROPOLIS." S3 1765), in its description of London, supplies a comical supplement to Bailey's grandiloquence : And that nothing may be wanting to render this metropolis [London] compleat in every respect, there are a great number of other prisons, besides Newgate, in and near it, . . . This example from Sterne, though bearing an earlier date than the one immediately preceding it, may be really later : Paris, March 19, 1762. Dear Garrick, This will be put into your hands by Dr. Shippen who is this moment setting off for your metropolis. L. Sterne. The sense in which metropolis was used in the foregoing examples was not exceptional and anomalous, but conformed to a usage distinctly recognized by the lexicographers of an earlier day. That sense was chief city, a sense which has continued down to the present time, and which for an indefinite period has been the com- mon and ordinary meaning of the word. The English dictionary makers did not invent that meaning, they adopted it, — being guided, no doubt, by the usage which came within their knowledge, and by the dictionaries of other Ian- 54 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. guages which they followed in compiling their vocabularies. Whatever was the language from which metropolis was taken when it began to be used in English, it would, as a foreign word, be aflected by the sense in which the related words were employed on the continent. Thus, in the well-known passage in Holinshed's Chronicles the French form metropole is found, and Mr. Skeat notes that Sir Thomas More uses metropolitanes as " a French adjective with added s." The passage in Holinshed's Chronicles was written by John Hooker (1586), and is as follows: The like order he tooke also at Dublin, which being the metropole and chiefe citie of the whole land, and where are hir maiesties principall and high courts, to answer the law to all sutors throughout the whole realme.* There can be little doubt, I think, if we take into consideration that Ireland at that time was a part of the ecclesiastical province of Canter- bury,f and that the writer was a zealous Protes- tant, that metropole is there used in a secular sense, * " The Supplie of the Irish Chronicles extended to the Present Yeare of our Lord 1 586, and the 28 of the Reigne of Queene Elizabeth,'' p. 402, vol. vi., of Holinshed's " Chroni- cles of England, Scotland and Ireland " : London, 1808. t Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. i., p. 236. THE WORD "METROPOLIS." 55 and that " chiefe citie " serves to explain it. That metropole had this sense in the French of that period is quite certain.* But the influence that Italian would have on this exotic word ought not to be overlooked, for Italian was much studied by literary people in England at the close of the sixteenth century. Florio's Italian-English Dictionary, "A Worlde of Wordes" (London, 1598), gives as its sole defi- nition of metropoli, " the chiefe head qitie or towne of any land."f The English dictionaries of the seventeenth century as far back as Min- sheu define metropolis substantially in the same way, but usually give also " mother city " as one of their definitions ; for nearly all the English dictionaries of that time made etymol- ogy a prominent feature. It is true, no doubt, that dictionaries when appealed to for ascer- taining the meaning of a word should be * See " Dictionnaire de laLangue Frangoise, Ancienneet Moderne, de Pierre Richelet," . . . Lyon, 1759 ; and also " Dictionnaire de Tr^voux," Paris, 1771. t A Worlde of Wordes, Or Most Copious, and exact Dic- tionarie in Italian and English, collected by John Florio, London, 1598. See also " Queen Anna's New World of Words, ... by John Florio, Reader of the Italian unto the Soveraigne Maiestie of Anna, ..." London: 161 1. 56 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. scanned with suspicion, and their authority should be accepted with reserve. But when it is found that their definitions, in a particular case, are in perfect accord with present usage, as it appears in the most varied forms of litera- ture, and also in accord with such usage when traced back about two hundred and fifty years — the dictionaries and literature keeping in line together, — then it becomes reasonable, in fact obligatory, to accept the testimony of lexicog- raphy as far back as it testifies to the same thing. In what sense metropolis has been commonly used in English literature for more than two hundred years is shown by the following examples ; two or three of which are already in the dictionaries. I Am now a good way within the Body of Spain, at Barcelona, a proud wealthy Citie, situated upon the Mediterranean, and is the Metropolis of the Kingdom of Catalunia, . . . — Howell, " Familiar Letters " {Sect. I., xxii.), London, 1645. So these the late Heav'n-banisht Host, left desert utmost Hell Many a dark League, reduc't in careful Watch Round thir Metropolis — Paradise Lost, Book ix., lines 436-9.* [1667. J Some think that Tauris was the ancient Ecbatane, * First edition ; later editions, Book x., same lines. THE WORD "METROPOLIS" 57 the Metropolis of the Empire of the Medes. — J. Phillips's Translation of Tavernier's Voyages, p. 21, (London, 1678). The long laborious Pavement here he treads, That to proud Rome th' admiring Nations leads ; While stately Vaults and towering Piles appear. And show the World's Metropolis is near. — — ^Addison. (Translation of Claudian's verses de- scribing the journey of Honorius). " Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. In the Years 1701, 1702, 1703." London : 1705, pp. 169-70. From Genoa we took Chaise for Milan, and by the way stopp'd at Pavia, that was once the Metropolis of a Kingdom, but is at present a poor Town. — Id. " Remarks," p. 20. In this passage the antithesis is evidently be- tween a large and rich town or city and a small, poor one. The following from Gibbon puts metropolis more distinctly -in the same light : The first and most natural root of a great city is the labour and populousness of the adjacent country, which supplies the materials of subsistence, of manu- factures, and of foreign trade A second and more artificial cause of the growth of a metropolis is the residence of a monarch, the expense of a luxuri- ous court, and the tributes of dependent provinces. — " Decline and Fall," ch. Ixxi.* * Gibbon sometimes used metropolis with an ecclesiastical reference : " A fleet of Saracens from the African coast 58 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. the high capital or metropolis of the vast Tartar country.'. . . . — J. H. Newman, "Historical Sketches." London, vol. i., p. 3. [Cicero] being sent to Sicily as Quaestor, at a time when the metropolis itself was visited with a scarcity of corn — Ibid., p. 248. Thus the worldly prosperity of David and Solomon appeared to have had no other result than to give to the Hebrew metropolis, both outwardly and in reality, a large share of pagan superstition, — F. W. Newman, " A History of the Hebrew Monarchy from the Administration of Samuel to the Babylonish Cap- tivity." London, 1847 ; ch. v. [Edinburgh] gray metropolis of the North. — Tenny- son, " The Daisy." No American newspaper has extended the meaning of metropolis further than this example from Macaulay : In that age it was seldom that a country gentleman went up with his family to London. The county town was his metropolis. — "History of England," ch. iii. And this, too, is quite American : Each of the two cities which made up the capital of England had its own centre of attraction. In the presumed to enter the mouth of the Tiber, and to approach a city which even yet, in her fallen state, was revered as the metropolis of the Christian world. " — "Decline and Fall," ch. Iii. THE WORD "METROPOLIS." 59 metropolis of commerce the point of convergence was the Exchange ; in the metropolis of fashion the Palace. — Ibid. I will add one more instance, because it illus- trates well the same sense : The city of Bruges had long been not only the seat of government of the Dukes of Burgundy, but also the me- tropolis of trade for all the neighbouring countries. — William Blades, " The Biography and Typography of William Caxton, England's First Printer," second edition, p. 15. As used in Europe, metropolis had ordinarily meant for an indefinite time the principal city of a country or province. But the principal city of a country was in most cases its governmental capital ; hence capital and metropolis were often used synonymously. But in America not one of the most important colonial towns became the permanent capital of the nation, and only one of them, Boston, became the permanent capital of a State. In what sense, then, should metropolis be used here ? Should it mean in America a capital city, in the sense of being the seat of government, or chief commercial city ? The geographer, Jedidiah Morse, in his "American Gazetteer," published in Boston, 1797, gave the preference to governmental capital. In the 6o ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. "American Gazetteer," metropolis is used of state capitals without reference to population or com- mercial importance. Washington, which the Gazetteer says, " is now building," and which by federal law was to become the national capital in 1800, it calls a metropolis. The Gazetteer says : " The situation of this metropolis [Washington] is upon the great post road, equidistant from the northern and southern extremities of the Union, and nearly so from the Atlantic and Pitts- burgh, . . . ." But the application of metropolis to a state capital, as such, or even to the national capital, did not meet with general acceptance.* It was only as the place of meeting of a legis- lative body and the site of certain government buildings that any one of these places could be regarded as a chief city. Popular usage kept in * In the first American dictionary in which metropolis is defined the only definition of it is, " the chief city of a country."— Elliott and Johnson's Dictionary, Suffield : 1800. —Metropolis, although used, is not defined in the School Dictionary of Samuel Johnson, Junior, which preceded Elliott and Johnson's Dictionary by about a year. The Johnson of Elliott and Johnson's Dictionary was the Samuel Johnson, Junior, who made the School Dictionary, — a Con- necticut school teacher. In Noah Webster's first dictionary — " A Compendious Dictionary of the English- Language," New Haven, 1806,— the only definition of metropolis is pre- cisely the same as that in Elliott and Johnson's Dictionary. THE WORD "metropolis:' 6i mind the far more important elements of popu- lation, wealth, and commercial activity. It gave the name metropolis to that city of the Union which outstripped all the others in these par- ticulars, and by and by extended its application to other cities which in a more limited territory held relatively the same position. Perhaps, too, our English visitors who wrote books about the United States helped to keep metropolis in the right channel. Frances Wright in her overflow of praise for things American says in 1819 : It [Philadelphia] has not, indeed, the commanding position of New York, which gives to that city an air of beauty and grandeur very imposing to a stranger, but it has more the appearance of a finished and long established metropolis. — " Views of Society and Man- ners in America." Letter VI., May, 1819.* Mrs. Trollope usually directs attention, in her " Domestic Manners of the Americans," to an American peculiarity in the use of a word by enclosing the word in quotation marks, or by some other distinct characterization. She calls Cincinnati, however, the metropolis of the West with apparent seriousness. * " Views of Society and Manners in America ; In a Series of Letters from that Country to a Friend in England, during the Years i8i8, 1819, and 1820." New York : 1821. 62 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. We returned to Memphis on the 26th of January, 1828, and found ourselves obliged to pass five days there, awaiting a steamboat for Cincinnati, to which metropolis of the West I was now determined to proceed with my family to await the arrival of Mr. Trollope.— Ch. iii. Elsewhere she says : Though I do not quite sympathize with those who consider Cincinnati as one of the wonders of the earth, I certainly think it is a city of extraordinary size and importance, when it is remembered that thirty years ago the aboriginal forest occupied the ground where it stands ; and every month appears to extend its limits and its wealth. — Ch. v. And Dickens, in his much misjudged " Amer- ican Notes" (1842), called New^ York "the beautiful metropolis of America." — (Ch. vi.) Bringing together now the writers in England mentioned in this paper, who have used metrop- olis in a sense not ecclesiastical, we find (count- ing Hooker's metropole), that the instances ex- tend through a period of about three hundred years. Omitting some of the least important of the cases cited, the others are : John Hooker (1586), Howell (1645), Milton (1667), Coles (i6;6), J. Phillips (1678), Addison (1705), Bailey (1734), Sterne (1762), Gibbon (1787), THE WORD "MBTROPOLtS." (>l and, within the last fifty years, De Quincey, Macaulay, Cardinal Newman, F. W. Newman, George Eliot, Thackeray,* and Dickens. It would have been easy to add many other names famous in English literature within the last hundred years, if the mere accumulation of examples had been aimed at. Enough cases have been cited to show that this "slang" use of metropolis is not new slang, and that it is found in the works of the best writers. Incidentally the probable source of the secular meaning of the word in English was suggested, namely, the prevailing sense in which the words metropole and metropoli were used in French and Italian at the time when the use of metropolis in England began to be a little frequent. Of course, it has not been the object of this paper to prove that metropolis has not an ecclesiastical sense ; on the contrary, there is some probability that it was in an ecclesiastical sense the word was first used in England ; but that ecclesiastical meaning was soon overlaid by a broader usage. The two senses have co-existed ever since ; but for more than two hundred years the secular meaning has been the prominent one. * Pendennis, vol. i., c. xxxvi. 64 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Mr. Skeat's treatment of the etymology of this word may be called ecclesiastical. We are told that metropolis means mother city, and that its use is properly restricted to an ecclesiastical sense. Beyond English it is traced through Latin to Greek, and a similar ecclesiastical sense in Greek is noted. The impression which is likely to be conveyed by this treatment, and which probably was intended to be conveyed, is that metropolis comes to the modern world from the ancient in a sense exclusively ecclesiastical, and that this ecclesiastical sense is derived from the composition of the word itself. But in all this there is much matter for contrpversy ; in fact, there is involved in it that interminable dis- pute about the relations of the Church and the Roman Empire. If one calls to mind the claim for the French meiropole, that it is a direct de- scendant from the metropolis he\ong\ng to the civil administration of the empire — a word anciently used without any reference to its etymological composition — he is inclined to ask for some of the evidence (for none is given) supporting the line of descent indicated by Mr. Skeat. We have seen that the history of metropolis in Eng- lish is not quite simple ; the difficulties con- THE WORD "METROPOLIS." 65 nected with it in Latin and Greek are far greater. Of course, no continuous account of the word back to its nativity is possible or expected. But when it i| found that four hundred years before Christ, and fifteen hundred years after Christ, and again not far from midway between these extremes, metropolis meant chief city or town, it is certainly reasonable to doubt if it has the ecclesiastical history attributed to it. SOME PECULIARITIES REAL AND SUPPOSED IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. 67 CONTENTS. PAGE I. Audience, 71 II. Different 75 III. Vine, 77 IV. Antecedents, 79 V. Yard-wand 83 VI. Right Away, 84 VII. All Along, 86 VIII. Druggist, 87 IX. Sidewalk, 88 X. Freight Car, Freight Train, etc., . 90 XI. Grave Yard, 91 XII. Stage, 92 XIII. Fall, 93 XIV. Americanisms noted by Captain Basil Hall, 94 69 SOME PECULIARITIES REAL AND SUPPOSED IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. I. AUDIENCE. I was much surprised some years ago to hear a member of the faculty of one of our oldest and most influential colleges — a man of a great deal of literary cultivation — speak always of the people looking at a ball game as " the audience." A suitable opportunity offering, I asked a mem- ber of the same faculty, if it was customary in the University to call the people looking at a ball game the audience ; he said, he thought it was, — that amongst the students, at least, the usage was probably universal. Subsequently I asked some students about it, and their replies corroborated as to themselves the professor's statement. " Oh yes," said one of them, " we always call them the audience." Perhaps " al- 71 72 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. ways " made his assertion too strong ; but, if only approximately true, the fact is an important one in the history of the word. One often meets with this or a similar use of audience in newspapers. Here are some instances selected from papers which have as high a repu- tation for careful editing as any in the United Statesi Besides the audience of a sparring match (in the letter of a well-known correspond- ent who writes much about royalty and the very great world), we have from other sources tennis, circus, and prize-fight audiences. Smith and Kilrain are now sparring nightly at the Aquarium, but draw only moderate audiences. There is a lull in British enthusiasm for heroes of the prize ring.— G. W. S. The first day's play of the tennis tournament .... developed some exceedingly pretty, tennis. A large and enthusiastic audience, among which were many ladies, was present. They [prize fighters] will then be driven as before to meet in some retired nook where the stock broker and the municipal statesman will not care to follow them, where their audience, like that of Milton, will be " fit though few," and its gate money but trifling, but where they can smash each other's features with- out the chance of impertinent interference. The two instances immediately following are PECULIARITIES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. 73 from a very enthusiastic account of an amateur circus in Westchester County high life : After this the young athletes further entertained the audience with exhibitions of ground tumbling and feats of strength, which were even better than their previous efforts. The fourteen acts of the elaborately designed pro- gramme were remarkably good, and the audience, which numbered over three hundred ladies and gen- tlemen, were highly delighted with the show. To many people this change from the long- established meaning of audience is unpleasant. It is doubtful, though, if censure or ridicule of it will have much effect. It is a common thing for words to get far away from the sense in which they were first used. Perhaps audience has reached a stage in its history when it is about to take permanently a meaning which fastidious people are not yet willing to accept. In the end, however, convenience will rule, and if for any reason audience comes to the mind and lips more readily than spectators, it will at last be used by everybody for spectators, and the latter will be crowded out. The use of audience for spectators seems to be more common in American than in English writing, but it is found not unfrequently in the 74 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. latter, A writer in The Fortnightly Review re- ferred recently to a ballet-dancer's audience. A bull-fight audience is supplied by the Saint James Gazette. Mr. Henry Blackburn's bathers at Trouville have an " admiring " audience. There are water velocipedes, canoes for ladies, and floats for the unskilful ; fresh water for the head before .bathing, and tubs of hot water afterwards for the feet on the sands ; an appreciating and admiring audience on the shore ; a lounge across the sands and through the "Establishment," in costumes more scanty than those of Neapolitan fish girls. — " Normandy Picturesque," p. 270.* I suppose the principal reason why audience is displacing spectators is that people go to, and talk about, the theatre and opera more than for- merly. Then, too, audience is a collective noun, and somewhat easier to say. I remember to have read an adverse comment somewhere on the use of audience as applied to those witness- ing a theatrical play. The point of the objec- tion probably was that people go to a theatre to see rather than to hear.f But, if we exclude pan- tomimes and spectacular plays, it is rather hard * Normandy Picturesque. By Henry Blackburn. Lon- don : 1869. t A friend says, that must have been before ladies wore view-blockers. PECUUARITJES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. 75 to say which is the more prominent thing in the modern drama, — what is done or what is said. At any rate, language, as used by the great body of mankind, does not regard such fine differences. Audience in this sense has the sanction of literary usage all the way down to our own day from Chapman and Shakespeare. II. DIFFERENT. The editor of one of our reviews has said that he sometimes receives carefully written articles in which different to is used instead of different from. It is not unlikely that their authors sup- pose they are conforming to English usage in writing different to. Now as to this, it is true that one often finds different to in the writings of English authors below a certain level of excel- lence. One finds it also in Thackeray, although he used different from oftener. But Thackeraj' did not aim at writing correct English, even when he spoke in his own person. His purpose was to write as an English gentleman of genius would talk, with a certain familiar indifference to verbal restraints. Sensible people do not try to 76 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. talk by compass and rule. A carefulness of expression which is suitable for writing is intol- erable in conversation. Thackeray would not hamper himself with formalism even when talk- ing for print ; he let his thoughts take utterance in a style abounding with solecisms, but the most charming that English has produced. That different from is the English of writers whose example is safest and most trustworthy would be very easy to prove. From a great number of collected instances of its use by such writers I select a few : The Parliament of his northern kingdom was a very different body from that which bore the same name in England. — Macaulay, "History of England." — Lon- don : 1863. — c. i. The army which now became supreme in the state was an army very different from any that has since been seen among us. — lb. but the circumstances have been alto- gether different from those which we trace in the history of England, Rome, or Greece. — J. H. Newman, " Historical Sketches." London: 1885. Vol. i., p. 59. Nothing can be imposed upon me different in kind from what I hold already, .... — / The trottoir paving in most of the streets [of New York] is extremely good, being of large flag-stones, very superior to the bricks of Philadelphia. — lb., ch. XXX. From hence commences the splendid Broadway, as the fine avenue is called which runs through the whole city. This noble street may vie with any I ever saw, for its length and breadth, its handsome shops, neat awnings, excellent trottoir, and well-dressed pedes- trians. — lb., ch. XXX. Mrs. Trollope mentions the staterooms in the packet-ship which carried her back to England. — " the accurate, but rapid glance of meas- urement thrown round the little staterooms." ch. xxxiv. 9© ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. X. FREIGHT CAR, FREIGHT TRAIN, ETC. Mr. Depew said of a joke of his which was late in reaching some of his English friends, — in fact, it did not arrive till the next morning, when it caused a good deal of merriment, — Mr. Depew is reported to have said, that "it must have traveled by freight train." And that little pleasantry, too, was even longer on the way than its predecessor, if it ever arrived at all ; for freight train had to be converted into goods train with its laboring line of goods wagons. Goods train is perhaps as definite as freight train when one is used to it ; but goods wagon is certainly less definite than freight car, and much of the nomenclature of the English railway system, so far as the public has need of it, has less precision and definiteness than the correspond- ing American names. Mr. Freeman says that he remembers railroad was more usual than railway in England when the thing itself first came in.* The testimony of Mr. Freeman's memory could be corroborated by quotations from English and * " Some Impressions of the United States," p. 59. PECULIARITIES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. 91 Scotch writers. Railroad was used by Scott, Macaulay, De Quincey, Cardinal Newman, John Bright, Thackeray, George Eliot, and probably a host of others. It would be interesting to know what was the legal name taken by the first companies. XI. GRAVE YARD. Names made of two or three words, and which seem perfectly self-explaining to those who use them, are often very puzzling to people not familiar with those particular combinations, even though they know well enough what the words mean taken separately. But grave yard one would suppose would explain itself to anybody who \iXi&vt grave and yard, even if, in his experi- ence, the yard where the graves were was usually a church yard. Captain Basil Hall visited the United States in 1827. Of course, he -found much that was sur- prising in the westward progress of population, and in the suddenness with which new towns started up in lately settled regions. He was much astonished at the growth of Rochester, 92 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. and spent a couple of days in "this gigantic young village " (it had about 8000 inhabitants, he tells us), observing the extraordinary bustle going on everywhere, especially in building. He was most interested, however, in the leveling of the forest, as it gave way before the rapidly extended streets. On driving a little beyond the streets towards the woods, we came to a space, about an acre in size, roughly enclosed, on the summit of a gentle swell in the ground. " What can this place be for ? " "Oh," said my.companion, "that is the grave yard." " Grave yard — what is that ? " said I ; for I was quite adrift. " Why, surely," said he, " you know what a grave yard is ? It is a burying ground. All the inhabitants of the place are buried there, whatever be their per- suasion. We don't use church yards in America." — Travels in North America, in the Years 1827 and 1828. By Captain Basil Hall, Royal Navy. In two Volumes. — Philadelphia: 1829. — Vol. i., p. 88. XII. STAGE. we found a coach, or as it is called, a stage, ready to take us to the town. An American stage is more like a French diligence than anything else. — Cap- PECULIARITIES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. 93 tain Basil Hall, " Travels in North America," vol. i. P-53- I went straight to my lodgings, put up half a dozen shirts, and took a place in the Dover stage. — Sterne, " A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy." — Introduction. (1767.) Other examples of the English use of stage for stage coach are found in the dictionaries. XIII. FALL. The word for autumn in that country [New Eng- land] is the Fall — a te'rm happily expressive of the fate of the leaves, and worthy, perhaps, of poetical, if not of vulgar adoption. Why, if the Spring be the rise of the year, should we not apply an equally des- criptive expression to that period when the law of nature, that all things on earth must droop and perish, is urged in such impressive language upon our thoughts ?— Captain Basil Hall, "Travels in North America," vol. i., p. 267. Johnson's Dictionary cites some verses of Dry- den's in which /«// is used for autumn, and several other English instances have been noticed and recorded, but it is doubtful if the word, in that sense, was ever in general use in England. Ten- 94 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. nyson has put it into the mouth of his Northern Farmer : I mean'd to a stubb'd it at fall, Done it ta-year I mean'd, an' runn'd plow thruff it an all— XI. XIV. AMERICANISMS NOTED BY CAPTAIN BASIL HALL. Captain Hall's industrious pencil noted, as words peculiar to America, or as used here in a peculiar sense, acclimated (vol. i., p. 223), balance (" the balance, as it is rather well called, or what remains of daylight," vol. ii., p. 232), cane brake (vol. ii., p. 290), cracker (biscuit, vol. ii., p. 245), creek (vol. ii., p. 184), crevasse (vol. ii., p. 294), check (hindrance, vol. ii., p. 134), corn-cob (vol. ii., p. 267), /«// (autumn, vol. i., pp. ^^jZ^f), judiciary, (" the Judicial Department, or to use a convenient American word, the Judiciary," vol. ii., p. 108), one- horse wagon (" which we should call a light cart," vol. i., p. 59), pitcher (" no water in my jug, or pitcher, as they call it," vol. i., p. 'j^,prairie (vol. ii., p. 310), seaboard {yo\. ii., p. 93), sawyer (in the Mis- sissippi River, vol. ii., p. 302), shingle {" shingles, which are a sort of oblong wooden slates," vol. i., p. 71), sick (vol. i., p. 46), snag (vol. ii., p. 302), PECULIARITIES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH. 95 squatter (vol. it., p. 297), stage (stage coach, vol, i-> P- 53)> store ("the stores, as the shops are called," vol. i., p. 8), swampy (vol. ii., p. 306). Lot and section he uses without commenting on them, I think. " some speculators having taken up the lots [in a part of Rochester] for immediate building," — vol. i., p. 88. ". . . . in those sections of the ■ state which lie between the Hudson and the lakes, "—vol i., p. 94. There is no suggestion of censure in Captain Hall's notices of our peculiar words or uses of words. He jots them down merely as things to be explained to his English readers. Some of them he adopts without further remark, and some uses which he thought peculiar were really English. Captain Hall had a conversation in New Haven with Noah Webster about the " American Dic- tionary of the English Language," upon which Webster had been long engaged, and which ap- peared in the following year (1828). Webster surprised Hall by telling him, " there were not fifty words in all which were used in America and not in England " ; but Hall admits : " I have certainly not been able to collect nearly that 9^ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. number." Hall was surprised, tbo, when told that nearly all these American words had been brought from England by the early settlers. Probably Captain Hall would have found a greater difference between the English used in America and the English of England, if he him, self had not been a Scotchman. GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 97 GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. The words " good English "• are often used without a definite meaning. Not long ago I was listening to a very highly educated man talking about a certain well-known writer. There was much in what he said which seemed to be true, but I found I could not follow his ideas con- secutively'. He had a good deal to say in an indefinite way about the writer's "good English," and as I knew that bad English was one of his author's faults, his remarks were perplexing and mystifying. By and by it became plain that the speaker meant by " good English " something different from what those words ordinarily signi- fied to me. It was difficult to determine pre- cisely what he did mean by them, but as nearly as I could make out by putting together what had been said, he meant something like good style. When "good English" is used of spoken, instead of written, words, there is commonly no misun- derstanding as to the sense intended. When a 99 lOO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. foreigner asks if A. B. speaks good English, we know that he means, first of all, — Does A. B. pronounce his words according to the usage which we consider good? — next, Does he use them in the sense in which educated people use them ? — lastly, Does he put them together according to the settled forms of English idioms and the principles of English grammar? No- body would think there was any reference to style in the question. Does A. B. speak good English ? Nobody would think, when answering the question, of saying anything about, or even considering, A. B.'s lucidity or lack of it — his dif- fuseness or conciseness — grace or awkwardness of expression, — in short the thousand and one individual peculiarities which constitute style. And yet I have found that when people talk of printed language they often mean by " good English " a manner of writing which produces a pleasing or convincing impression. But the two things are only remotely related. There are people who talk charmingly while mispronounc- ing and misjoining their words ; and there are others whose conversation is intolerable, although their grammar and pronunciation are in accord with accepted usage. So it is in writing. We GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. loi may write quite correctly and yet very badly; and on the other hand, there may be — there have been — those who had such an adaptation of thought, feeling, and manner to what they were writing about as to be independent in some degree of the conventionalities of language. But the great body of people who write, whether for print or otherwise, have to conform as well as they can to some standard of authority outside of themselves, to rules of verbal right and wrong which they have not made, but which they accept. In what is said here, then, about good English, I shall mean by those words what is commonly meant by them when applied to spoken lan- guage, — namely, good pronunciation, conformity in sense to accepted usage, and conformity to grammatical rules and idiomatic forms ; all beyond this, however important it may be, is outside the subject matter. And first of all it will be noticed by any- body who has given any attention to the deter- mination of good English, that there is, even after its meaning has been circumscribed as above, a great deal about it which is very vague and indefinite. If we say that good English is I02 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. English spoken or written according to accepted usage (which is about as good a definition as can be made of it), immediately the question sug- gests itself, — Accepted by whom? Whose usage ? Certainly not the numerical majority of those who speak English, whether in England, America, or the British colonies. In fact, it may be said that one of the most noticeable things in the speech of any great body of people (as a nation or several nations) using the same lan- guage, is a multiplex contrariety of usage, and that a unity of method nowhere exists in the majority. There are certain broad features of English which belong to it wherever it is found, but within those lines there is a great variety of form — some peculiarities belonging to communi- ties and extensive regions of country, and some to individuals only, but yet so widely diffused as to be quite as important as geographical charac- teristics. Good English cannot be ascertained, then, by polling the majority. But a plurality ? May not good English be the English of the greatest number of those who have a common usage ? Of many imaginary groups, each having an agreement of usage, would it not be well to call that good English which belongs to the GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 103 largest group? As a matter of fact, I am in- clined to think, that good English is the English of the greatest number of people speaking the language with a common usage ; but one sees at once that it would be impossible to ascertain the numbers of different groups by polling. There is an intrinsic probability that no extensive agreement of speech could be reached and kept up without the variety of intercourse and inter- change of thought which characterize the life of the people whose authority in language is most respected. But this is not polling ; it is conjec- ture. But while the English which is best known, and which seems to be the most es- teemed, may be, and probably is, plurality English, yet the regard for it is certainly not due mainly to respect for numbers. And this brings us again to the question we were con- sidering, — what is it that makes English good or bad ? If the inquiry related to the language of America exclusively, perhaps it could be an- swered with some definiteness; but when it is extended to the parental home of the language — to England — then the question is embarrassed for us with greater difficulties, partly because the conditions to be considered are more complicated 104 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. than they are here, and partly because from re- moteness and certain prepossessions filling our minds, we are not favorably placed for examining them. But looking toward England as Ameri- cans, we can see, or fancy we see, that it would be possible there to have two different standards of English, each esteemed and accepted by con- siderable bodies of English people, according to their affiliations, habits of mind, and opportuni- ties. I suppose the number of people in England who think or care anything about good or bad English is much smaller, even relatively, than in the United States ; but amongst those who do care somewhat about their way of speak- ing — so far, at least, as to avoid vulgarisms — there might be, and there is reason to believe there are, two different kinds of usage, each having a cer- tain authority of its own. One of them would be likely to be the English of literary and the more cultivated part of professional people ; — a manner of speech not quite settled in every particular, but sufficiently unified to afford criteria of pro- priety for those who look up to literary knowledge and superiority for guidance in such matters. This kind of English is the easier to get at, and to know what it is, because it can be examined GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 105 in books, and be heard with some degree of fre- quency from the lips of distinguished lecturers, clergymen, and readers. The other kind is the English of people living in the highest social station, who constitute in their country " the roof and crown of things." Now an American finds it hard to unlearn, that men of very great literary reputation, men of the most careful train- ing and cultivation, men apparently having all the perceptible qualifications for the highest social status, may not be — usually are not — on the highest level of English social life. Separated from England by so great a dis- tance, and by a far greater measure in habits of daily thought, we find it difficult to realize and impossible to understand, that the body of people who more than any others make England illustrious, are not of its roof and crown, but of a middle station, and that they speak and write middle-class English. What may be noble En- glish is for most of us a sealed book ; but cer- tainly there would be a likelihood from the circumstances and manner of life of those who use it, that it would be generally (though not always) different from the speech of those who give most of their time to .books. And such a lo6 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. probability has confirmation in report. Awful whispers come back from the enterprising Amer- icans who have scaled the topmost, innermost defenses of aristocratic fashion, that the English spoken there is something dreadful, — that it must have been learned about the stables and kennels ; and examples of its quality are reported in the manner of people divulging things incred- ible. Among such examples have been men- tioned the following as more or less common : gal (girl), ricTn (riding), bilin (boiling), sett'n (sitting), gearding (first g hard — garden), chaw, (chew), wen (when), yalleh (yellow), hoss (horse), that's him, it's her, — and (Phoebus Apollo !) some- times, him and me done it. The dropping of g final, in an unaccented syllable, is said to be usual, but not universal ; on the other hand, it is said, a^ is sometimes added where it does not belong. An extreme nasal tone in the pronun- ciation of such words zs power, our, etc., is alleged to be prevalent. Such English is not unknown in America ; in fact it is quite familiar. Every one of the fore- going examples might have been cited from a well-recognized species of American dialect. But here this dialeqt is in adversity; it is not GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 107 the speech of even such high life as we have. If associated in our minds with a leisure class, it is a leisure class which lounges about the tavern hprse-trough, or clusters on nail kegs in village stores. There is a distinct odor of tobacco-chewing about it. The late Charles Mackay greatly regretted that the ruling powers in England, in the early part of the eighteenth century, did not have "sagacity and forethought enough to include a Minister of Education, as well as a Minister of War, of Finance, and of Foreign Affairs, among its high functionaries " ; and he seriously proposed that such a functionary — " a responsible Minister of Education " — should now be created for the pur- pose, partly, of introducing certain reforms in spelling, but chiefly that a dictionary might be made to order which should receive his imprim- atur, — which dictionary should inform the British empire " what is really and truly the classical English language." * The importance and urgency of creating this high functionary were impressed on Dr. Mackay by the condition into which the English language has fallen through the * " The Ascertainment of English," Charles Mackay. — The Nineteenth Century, January, 1890. Io8 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. influence mainly of newspaper writers, female novelists, and the "would-be witty and comic young men of the universities and great public schools." Although the responsible minister was to be charged with serious duties in the way of making radical reformations and improvements in the language, the most urgent business of his office was to be the suppression of slang. But would not Dr. Mackay's " high functionary " be confronted by an earlier and more pressing prob- lem in his ascertainment of English ? Would it not be necessary for him to determine, when ascertaining " what is really and truly the classical English language," whether such Eng- lish is the middle-class English of literature, or whether it is the noble English just touched upon? The dictionary of a minister which em- bodied really and truly classical English, and only such, would specify its pronunciation. Now, would it sanction the pronunciation which was used by Matthew Arnold, say, — or of Lord Fawks- brush ? Dr. Mackay proposed that the respons- ible minister should introduce certain spelling reforms of a phonetic character. He was not prepared to " go the length of the fanatics of pho- neticism," but thought there ought to be some GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 109 changes in orthography which should make the written word more like the spoken one. A very desirable thing, yet in the peculiar circumstances of the case involved in difficulties. Whose pro- nunciation would be accepted as standard in bringing writing and speech into closer agree- ment ? Would the spelling of the authori- tative reform dictionary be gal, geal, or gerl ? — hos or hors ? — chaw or chu ? — wen or hwen ? — bilin or boiling ? These and many similar prob- lems would have to be considered. Evidently perplexities and embarrassments would beset " a responsible Minister of Education." The gov- ernment bench would not seem velvet. It might be upset by indiscreet action. And in case of an appeal to the country, would noble or middle- class English get a working majority ? In the latter event would the peers give way? — Ques- tions which make the subject ridiculous make it seem also unreal ; but the antecedent probabilities of the case, and the testimony of those whose opportunities of knowing have been excellent, concur in this — that the language found on the highest level of English life is not the English which Americans regard as the language of edu- cated people. What kind of English will finally no ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. be accepted in England when usage becomes more uniform there, Americans can only con- jecture. In turning to that phase of the subject which directly concerns us — good English in America — it will be well to cite an opinion of Mr. Free- man's, the more agreeably, because elsewhere I have been obliged to quote him once or twice with some dissatisfaction. No one, I think, who has considered the conditions shaping language in England and America will dissent from Mr. Freeman's view otherwise than by emphasizing more strongly the extent and necessity of the differences referred to. In nearly all these cases the difference matters nothing to one whose object is to save some relics of the good old English tongue. One way is for the most part as good as the other ; let each side of the Ocean stick to its own way, if only to keep up those little picturesque differences which are really a gain when the substance is essentially the same. This same line of thought might be carried out in a crowd of phrases, old and new, in which British and American usage differs, but in which neither usage can be said to be in itself better or worse than the other. Each usage is the better in the land in which it has grown up of itself. A good British writer and a good American writer will write in the same language and GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 1 1 1 the same dialect ; but it is well that each should keep to those little peculiarities of established and reason- able local usage which will show on which side of the Ocean he writes. — " Some Impressions of the United States," pp. 66-67. Although good usage is better settled in America than in England, it is hard to say defi- nitely what it is that makes it good. We have followed the query so far, and even now a dis- tinct answer eludes us. We found it would be discreet to leave to Englishmen the final ascer- tainment of good English in England ; the sub- ject seemed too complex and difficult for people so widely separated from that country as we are in space and thought. Here we can do better, but not very much better, perhaps. If pressed to say definitely what good American English is, I should say, it is the English of those who are believed by the greater number of Americans to know what good English is. That is more definite than it seems at first sight. It means that it is the English of those — so far as there is agreement among them — ^who are most gen- erally looked up to on account of their supposed knowledge of the subject. It means, too, that there are many people here who give enough 112 ENGUStt LANGUAGE TOPICS. thought to the matter to have a belief about it. I do not know if similar beliefs about language exist to any great extent in other countries. I doubt if there be any large number of persons in England who look up to others, on account of supposed knowledge, for guidance in matters of speech. Language there is more generally a matter of family usage than it is here ; it is the speech one grows up with, and to change it would, smack of affectation and a desire to ape one's betters. I think we may see evidences of indiflerence to, and ignorance of, other people's English in much of the criticism of language ' made from time to time by English writers. Such criticisms are apt to exhibit a lack of knowledge as. to the use of English by their own countrymen. They are apt to betray parochial limitations. But in America there is a very wide-spread desire to shape speech by an exact and universal standard, and a belief almost as wide-spread, that such a standard exists some- where. This feeling is not wholly advantageous ; it has some unpleasant features. So far as man- ner goes, we should talk better, and write better, if it did riot exist ; for constraint and care about forms of expression must necessarily mar sim- GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 113 plicity, picturesqueness and force. But, good or bad, there is a demand for uniformity, and its importance as an element in the shaping of our language ought not to be overlooked. The belief or notion that there is a strict standard of correct speech somewhere, if one could get at it, is very widely diffused in America. The idea seems to be, that something almost as exact as the standard yard exists in some place accessible to the learned with which language can be tested and its correctness decided. There are some millions of Americans who would ex- pect as definite and conclusive an answer to the question, what is the right pronunciation of this or that word — no matter what one, — or, is this or that form of expression good English ? — as they would to the question, what is the difference in time between Greenwich and New York ? The methods of instruction which largely prevail in our schools have helped to form, if they have not originated, such conceptions of language ; so much of what is learned in schools, except the best, consists in the memorizing of distinct, separable statements found in books, and in the squaring of one's ideas by hard and fast rules. In language the school dictionary and grammar 114 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. are made the tests of right and wrong. With a change of school comes a new grammar, or per- haps another dictionary, but not a change of method. There is merely an exchange of one rigid authority for another. When school is left behind and maturity is reached, the habit of seeking and accepting the sharp, black and white decisions of book authority remains unshaken, but some uncertainty has entered the mind as to where the real, true, and final authority is found. The existepce of such beliefs in regard to correct and incorrect language, and as to the private, scholastic knowledge about it possessed by learned persons, brings some good results, how- ever, — although some unfortunate ones, too, which have been touched upon already. This very wide concern for correct speech tends even- tually to definiteness and precision in its use, and by and by with mastery will come natural grace. In deiining good American English as the English of those who are believed by the greater number of Americans to know what good Eng- lish is, I did not mean to convey the idea that there was any intentionor desire on the part of those having the belief to shape their speech according to the changes and peculiarities of GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. US British usage. I doubt if the belief attributes to the custodians of linguistic propriety any very extensive and minute knowledge of what "British usage may be, but rather a knowledge of the best method as viewed by Americans. The number of people here who think it possible or desirable to make our speech conform to the uncertain, shifting, and conflicting ways of a nation distant three thousand miles from our nearest seaboard, is very small, and will grow less as the conditions of the case become more appar- ent. Such as they are they can be described in one word — unbaked. But assuming that we have the liberty of an American English, we shall do well if we use it temperately, rever- ently, like the liberty of the gospel. The liberty of an American English, if used rightly, will be the liberty of a language taking its natural course, when purified as much as possible from the vulgarities of ignorance, smartness, and ped- antry. It is well to notice the direction which changes in our language are likely to take, and where restriction is reasonable and natural. So far as pronunciation in America has been guided and shaped by dictionaries, it has prob- ably been influenced more by Walker's Diction- Ii6 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. ary than by any other. Walker's Dictionary was first published in England about a hundred years ago, and for fifty years afterward was gen- erally consulted as an authority in doubtful cases. Its influence through other dictionaries has been even greater than its direct effect. Some of Walker's pronunciations were never accepted in America, and it is interesting to note that some which were rejected here have been discredited in England by recent book authorities of the most weight. But after mak- ing allowance for a considerable number of words in the pronunciation of which Walker was not followed, there can hardly -be any doubt that Walker's Dictionary has exercised a wide and permanent influence upon pronunciation in America. It would be difficult to account for the degree of uniformity in pronunciation which exists here, if such a unifying agent be disre- garded. Of course, too, the extent to which people go about and mix with each other, has helped much in the same direction. It is the business of our dictionary makers to ascertain as completely and exactly as possible what are the pronunciations in which we agree, and to record such agreement by indicating clearly the GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. H? accepted usage. In a case where there is dis- agreement, the principal usages should be given, especially the one which accords with analogy, and the one which is in most common use. Event- ually one or the other will become distinctly pre- dominant, and agreement will be reached in that way. By such processes of comparison and elim- ination, conformity to a common standard of pronunciation will become general ; but the stan- dard itself will not be a fixed one ; there will be necessarily involved in it the elements of gradual change. As to making new words and extending the meanings of old ones, we ought to remember always that language is naturally growing in one direction or another, and undergoing modification in its growth. We cannot retard the more numerous changes going on in England, even if American English could be cast in a permanent form. Perhaps it will be said by some that in pronouncing words in an American way, and in using them in an American sense, we sever con- nection with the English language, and that it would be more truthful to say we talk American, not English. Ultimately this will be the case, probably ; Englishmen will talk English, Ameri- Ii8 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. cans American, and Australians Australian. But it would be premature to distinguish so the languages of these regions at present. Some differences exist, but not more than are found in the speech of several civilized nations having a continuous territory. And below verbal differ- ences, there is structural unity. This part of a language is its form, — and, although it has a broader meaning, I refer here especially to the framework, as it were, on which the words are strung and fitted. This constituent of the form of a language changes far more slowly than the words themselves. The way in which words are put together is partly a matter of choice and partly a matter of obligation ; so far as it is a matter of choice it belongs to style, which we are not considering ; but as a matter of obliga- tion, it is determined by grammar and idiom.* Of course, above all these is the law of intelligi- bility, — a law of consecutive ideas, — but that is not under consideration either. Idiom and idio- matic are not always used in the same sense by different writers on language, and not always in * A comprehensive and complete grammar would include all idioms in its treatment ; but it is so common to thinic of grammar as a body of general rules, that I prefer to mention idioms distinctively. GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 119 the same sense by the same writer ; their meaning as used here and elsewhere in this paper ought therefore to be explained. I mean here by an idiom a ^phrase having a sense which cannot be deduced from the words considered separately, — thus, if one says, " The day bids fair to be pleas- ant," or, "I will not put up with it," bids fair and. put up with are idioms ; the meanings of these phrases cannot be deduced from the meanings of their components. Strictly speaking, such phrases are instances of idiom used in a larger sense, namely, peculiarity of usage belonging to a particular language as compared with certain other languages; for a combination of words having a meaning which cannot be deduced from the words taken separately will usually, if native, be peculiar to a single language, and therefore idiomatic. The origin of such phrases can be explained sometimes by supplying words which have dropped out, and sometimes by find- ing that their components formerly had senses which are now obsolete ; often there is a figura- tive allusion which has become obscured ; — but the explanation of many can only be conjectural. English abounds in such idioms. They form a large part of the speech of every-day life. Their 120 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. use adds much to force and directness of expres- sion ; they lighten the burden of a learned style. Now to use idioms correctly, and in the real form which they have acquired, is as much an obligation of language as the observance of the general rules of grammar. Of the latter obligation there can be no doubt when the grammatical rule is a cor- rect statement of usage. But a grammar merely represents the opinions of a man, or of a number of men, and language is exceedingly intricate, so that there is abundant opportunity for the gram- marian to err ; and even when the right way is seen clearly enough, sometimes it is very difficult or impossible to reduce the principle to a formu- lated expression which is not misleading. But grammatical rules, so far as they agree with the facts of a language, are binding. A scrupulous adherence in England and America to the gram- matical and idiomatic forms of English will preserve for both countries what will be essen- tially the same language, though there should be considerable divergence as to individual words and pronunciation. But even structure does not remain wholly intact ; even there, in the course of time, differences will no doubt grow up. I have spoken of the observance of idiomatic GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 121 forms. It will be worth while to direct attention to the office and employment of a body of English words whose relations are settled some- times by idiomatic usage, and sometimes by the general principles of syntax. It is a department of grammar which is not, in fact, cannot be treated with the fullness and definiteness needed for practical requirements. I refer to the use and suitableness of connective words, meaning especially prepositions, prepositional suffixes, and certain adverbs, conjunctions and relatives. A large part of the difficulties of English, and of any similar language, are involved in their proper employment. They cannot be treated ade- quately in grammars or dictionaries, because a sufficient body of examples illustrating their complex uses has never been collected, and if such a body of examples ever were collected, it is not likely that the principles which determine the right choice of these words in each case could ever be formulated. The grammars have done something, and the great dictionaries have done something, but far more must be left to each one's sense of language. One goes astray oftener in the use of these words than anywhere else in speech and writing. The example of 122 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. writers who seem to have a finer sense of language than most people must guide in these matters the duller apprehensions of others. Grammar in its present state of development could not take any direction so useful as the collection and classification of a great number of quotations from judicious writers illustrating the uses of connective words. Some of the questions which come up in regard to these are easy, some are difficult, the same question may be easy for one person and difficult for another who has never thought about it or examined it. It would be the function of an ideal treatise upon syntax to treat all such cases, hard or simple, and to give the inquirer in each case guiding examples. It would tell us, for example, when to say abound in or abound with, accept or accept of, compare with or compare to, notes of or on, affinity with, to, for, the distinctions between so — as, and as — as, and, in the numerous cases where a noun and its adjective are followed by different prepositions, point out the divergence. The mere mention of these few familiar examples will suggest a host of other similar ones. I do not say that the questions spoken of above have not been treated already in grammars, and to some extent in GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 123 dictionaries; but one can see as soon as he begins ■ to think about it and to look into the matter, that even the best grammars and largest dictionaries are inadequate for resolving a hun- dredth part of the difficulties which come up in such inquiries. For those who have a fine sense of language, such difficulties dissolve away, I suppose, or are not felt. And there is a large body of persons, even among those who write or talk for the public, who have no scrupulosities about mere whimseys of lan- guage as they would call such things ; but between these extremes of sensibility and stolidness there are many whom similar problems perplex and embarrass. One must turn, then, for guidance to the usage of those writers who are regarded as writing English most correctly, and if the authors consulted com- bine an agreeable style with correct expression, so much the better ; but we must always be on our guard against confounding these two differ- ent things. It is worth while to refer here to a resemblance of method, as to niceties of language, between two famous authors. Sbme time ago I was comparing a large number of quotations taiken 124 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. from some celebrated prose writers for the pur- pose of finding definitely what prepositions or prepositional suffixes were used by them with certain words in particular cases. The authors compared on this occasion were Macaulay, De Quincey, John Henry Newman, Francis William Newman, Matthew Arnold, George Eliot, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In most of these cases there was complete agreement among them, so far as there were quotations bearing on the point under consideration ; but in some instances there seemed to be anomalous departures by two of these writers from what appeared to be the legitimate usage of the others. A closer exami- nation of the cases, however, seemed to show that the departures were not anomalous, but con- veyed the ideas in the minds of the writers better than conformity to ordinary usage would have done. In some instances the irregularities of the two writers referred to exactly agreed with and supported each other. One would say that a distinguishing characteristic of these two writers, though differing otherwise very greatly in their styles, is a fine sense of the availability of little, subordinate words for modifying mean- GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 125 ing. I have in mind Cardinal Newman and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The foregoing is very unsystematic ; and yet there is a thread of purpose in it. I doubt if the subject could be developed in a systematic way without raising questions of greater intricacy and subtilty than one would care to go into. But returning to the beginning, and glancing hastily through what has been put forward, we notice : The ambiguity with which " good Eng- lish " is often used when applied to an author's writings, although commonly the words have a definite, restricted meaning when said of spoken language. That definite meaning of good Eng- lish, expressed in the briefest way, was found to be English spoken or written according to ac- cepted usage. But that raised the question, accepted by whom ? So far as the question relates to England, it seemed hardly prudent for an American to hazard an answer ; but restrict- ing the inquiry to our own country, and limiting it to the form, what is good American English? a reply was found which was, perhaps, suffi- ciently definite. The natural necessity of a gradually increasing divergence between British 126 ENCLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. and American English was then touched upon, and the query considered, where such divergence would be the most reasonable and legitimate. The opinion was offered, that such, divergence would naturally be in pronunciation, the accept- ance of new words, and in the modification of the meanings pf old ones. It was pointed out, that the separation between British and Ameri- can English would result more from changes in the language going on in England than in this country; for in language there is a stronger con- servative influence here than in England. But, notwithstanding such divergence of pronuncia- tion and vocabulary, we were reminded, that structure changes slowly, very slowly indeed, and that the framework of English is something to cling to. And as to the way English fits together, attention was directed to the import- ance of studying it, not less in treatises, but more in good literature. An objection will come into the minds of some, in going through this summary of thoughts, that the prevailing idea is too American^ that the ten- dency of the suggestions is barbaric. But to such an objection I think the answer may be made, that our only chance of a national literature GOOD ENGLISH FOR AMERICANS. 127 lies in the independence of American thought and method. In most cases a national literature has been the growth of a foreign graft on a bar- baric stock ; but the graft has never thriven and amounted to much, unless the stock had so much vigor that it shaped the development of the graft, and gave to the fruit its own tissue and flavor. A literature which shall be really American must rest upon an American language. No body of literature of much value (as literature) was ever produced by people writing in a language which they felt to be not quite their own. The Ameri- can authors who are most esteemed abroad are those who are most distinctly American ; and hence the foreign rating of our writers is not the same as our own. So strongly has the importance of national characteristic been emphasized in England, that the idea seems to prevail there rather widely, that the grand outcome of Ameri- can literature, so far, is the American joke. The front of American letters seen by most Eng- lish eyes is a combination of humorous audac- ity and grotesque illiteracy. And, possibly, the outside opinion of American literature has some truth in it. At any rate we can find in it sug- gestions which may have use. Perhaps the "8 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. humorists who are enjoying at present so large a share of English and American favor are the forerunners of a nobler American literature which shall be not less national than they ; — just as formerly, in feudal towns, troops of mummers, tumblers, zanies and buffoons sometimes mar- shaled the joyous entry of a king. Let us hope so, and perhaps our hopes may make the incom- ing of such a literature possible. CASES OF DISPUTED PROPRIETY AND OF UNSETTLED USAGE. izg CASES OF DISPUTED PROPRIETY AND OF UNSETTLED USAGE. All along. See Page 86. ALL OVER. Discriminate between All over and Over all. Instead of saying, " The rumor flew«// over the coun- try," say, " over all the country." — " Discriminate," pp. 9-10.* But all IS an adverb as well as an adjective, and when used adverbially may modify a prepo- sition or prepositional adverb ; as, all through the house ; he ran all over the field; it is all over. But there was not the slightest gleam or dazzle, either on the window or on the snow ; so that the good lady could look' all over the garden, and see * Discriminate. ... A Manual for Guidance in the Use of Correct Words and Phrases in Ordinary Speech New York: 1885. 131 132 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. everything and everybody in it. — Nathaniel Haw- thorne, " The Snow-Image." * The parasitic growth [on old English trees] is so luxuriant, that the trunk of the tree, so gray and dry in our climate, is better worth observing than the boughs and foliage ; a verdant mossiness coats it all over ; so that it looks almost as green as the leaves. — Id., "Our Old Home" (Recollections of a Gifted Woman), f All about the house and domain there is a perfec- tion of comfort and domestic taste, — lb. The meeting broke up ; and what the Prince had said was in a few hours known all over London. — Macaulay, " History of England," c. x. the festivities by which, all over England, the inauguration of the new government was cele- brated. — lb., c. xi. All down the Rhine, from Baden to Cologne, the French arms were victorious. — lb., c. ix. All along the southern border [of Scotland], and all along the line between the highlands and the low- lands, raged an incessant predatory war. — lb., c. i. An ash in the hedgerow behind made a fretted screen from the sun, and threw happy playful shad- ows all about them. — George Eliot, " Silas Marner," c. xvi. * The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Fifth Edition. Boston. t Our Old Home, And English Note-Books. By Na- thaniel Hawthorne. Boston : 1886. BEING.— IS BEING MADE, ETC. 133 the church was fuller than all through the rest of the year, . . . lb., c. x. all through the country — Matthew Arnold, " Essays in Criticism " (Wordsworth).* Antecedents. See Page 79. II. BEING. — IS BEING MADE, BUILT, ETC. Professor Earle, in his " Philology of the English Tongue " (pp. 546-7),* says : " From an early friend of Dr. Newman's I learnt that he had long ago expressed a strong dislike to the cumulate formula is being. I desired to be more particularly informed, and Dr. Newman wrote as follows to his friend : ' It surprises me that my antipathy to " is being " existed so long ago. It is as keen and bitter now as ever it was, though I don't pretend to be able to defend it.' After giving certain reasons (which are omitted, because this is a point in which reasons are sec- * Essays in Criticism." — Second Series. — By Matthew Arnold. — London and New York : 1888. t The Philology of the English Tongue. By John Earle, M.A., Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Ox- ford. Third Edition. Oxford: 1879. 134 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. ondary and a good judgment when we can get one is primary), he continues : ' Now I know nothing of the history of the language, and can- not tell whether all this will stand, but this I do know, that, rationally or irrationally, I have an undying, never-dying hatred to " is being," what- ever arguments are brought in its favour. At the same time I fully grant that it is so convenient in the present state of the language, that I will not pledge myself I have never been guilty of using it.' " Professor Earle adds, in a foot note : " Every one sees that these hearty words were not meas- ured for print, and I am the more obliged to Dr. Newman for allowing this use of his undesigned evidence."* Some instances are quoted below of the use of are being and were being by Dr. Newman, not- withstanding his " undying, never-dying hatred " of this locution. — " For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." — Romans, vii., \{. for as to Frank, it was more than being * These " hearty words '' of Dr. Newman's concerning a matter comparatively trivial bring into impressive contrast the union of deep feeling with most temperate expression which pervades the " Apologia." BEING.— IS BEING MADE, ETC. 13S tacitly brought up as his uncle's heir, . . r . . — Jane Austen, " Emma : A Novel," vol. i., c. ii., p. 27.* the little inequalities of the ground are being removed with much trouble and expense. — Frances Wright, Letter, New York, October, 18 18, p. 12.t which for a time caused Basil great des- pondency, as if he were being left solitary in all Christendom, without communion with other places. — J. H. Newman, " Historical Sketches," vol. ii., p. 34, (Labours of Basil, § 3). I have a much more definite view of the promised inward Presence of Christ with us in the Sacraments now that the outward notes of it are being removed. — Id. From letter (1841) quoted in "Apo- logia," p. 157. At this very moment souls are being led into the Catholic Church, on the most various and independ- ent impulses, and from the most opposite directions. — Id. Quoted by Mr. Fitzedward Hall in his " Modern English " (p. 329) from Dr. Newman's " Essays Critic- al and Historical." the property, which was being nailed into boxes, and packed into hampers, — Thack- eray, " Pendennis," vol. i., c. ii., p. 9. But he felt that he was being relieved from a diffi- culty — George Eliot, " Scenes of Clerical Life " (Amos Barton), c. vii. * Emma : A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of " Pride and Prejudice," &c., &c. — London : 1816. t See Page 61 of this volume, foot note. 136 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. The child was being taken care of, and would very likely be happy — Id., " Silas Marner," c. xv. while she was being lifted from the pill- ion — lb., c. xi. Soon there was no sound — only a slight movement; the flame had leaped out, and was being extinguished the faster.—/^., " The Lifted Veil," p. 339. the bubbling and squeaking of something — doubtless very nice and succulent — that was being cooked at the kitchen-fire. — Nathaniel Hawthorne, " Our Old Home " (About Warwick). Any one, for instance, who will go to the Potteries, and will look at the tawdry, glaring, ill-proportioned ware which is being made there for certain American and colonial markets, will easily convince himself how, in our people and kindred, the sense for the arts of design, though it is certainly planted in human nature, might dwindle and shrink almost to nothing, if it were not for the witness borne to this sense, and the protest offered against its extinction, by the brill- iant aesthetic endowment and artistic work of ancient Greece. — Matthew Arnold, " Literature and Dogma," c. i., p. 55. He was inclined to regret, as a spiritual flagging, the lull [in reform] which he saw. I am disposed rather to regard it as a pause in which the turn to a new mode of spiritual progress is being accomplished. — Id., " Essays in Criticism " (Functions of Criticism at the Present Time). I remember hearing Lord Macaulay say, after Wordsworth's death, when subscriptions were being BEING.— IS BEING MADE, ETC. 137 collected to found a memorial of him, that ten years earlier more money could have been raised in Cam- bridge alone, to do honour to Wordsworth, than was now raised all through the country — Id., " Essays in Criticism," Second Series. Wordsworth, Partial and material achievement is always being put forward as civilization. — Id., " Civilization in the United States." — TAe Nineteenth Century, April, 1888. We can also express the passive voice by means of the verb be, and a verbal noun ; as, " the book is print- ing " (= " the book is a printing "= " the book is in printing" )=" the book is being printed." — Richard Morris, " Historical English Grammar," p. 131.* . . . //was being turned,as in Essex, into ^^, . . . . — T. L. Kington Oliphant, "The Old and Middle English," p. 303. T was being smitten. I am being smitten. T shall be being smitten. — W. G. Wrightson, "Functional Ele- ments of an English Sentence." Table, p. 21. f I soon found however that Guiteau was being tried before a magistrate of greatly inferior rank, answer- ingratherto a recorder or a county court judge among * Elementary Lessons in Historical English Grammar Containing Accidence and Word-Formation. By the Rev. Richard Morris, LL.D. — London : 1884. t An Examination of the Functional Elements of an Eng- lish Sentence Together with a New System of Analytic Marks. By the Rev. W. G. Wrightson, M.A. Cantab.— London : 1882. 138 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. ourselves. — E. A. Freeman, " Some Impressions of the United States," p. 97. It is a safe assertion, considering the circum- stances, that no structural innovation in any language of such importance as is being ever before re'ached so wide acceptance in so short a time. The fifteenth century instances of its use cited by Mr. Oliphant have been contradicted by Mr. Hall. — See pages 40^1. — Mr. Oliphant had said in his " New English " (vol. i., p. 273) : " In p. 92 there is a startling change of idiom which did not become common until 300 years later ; being is prefixed to a Past Participle ; wyn is being y put to sale ; this idiom is repeated in p. 100." * Mr. Oliphant's remarks, quotation, and references relate to the " Letters and Papers of John Shil- lingford. Mayor of Exeter," 1447-50, printed for the Camden Society. I have read the pages in the Shillingford Papers referred to by Mr. Oli- phant, but I have not found is being in them, or any similar construction. The passages quoted by Mr. Hall are there, and leave scarcely any doubt that the pages referred to by Mr. Oliphant were the ones intended. Mr.- Oliphant * The New English. By T. L. Kington Oliphant of Balliol College. — London : 1886. CIRCUMSTANCES. . 139 seems to have overlooked or misunderstood the essential point in the idiom. The few examples of is being found before 1800 will probably be increased somewhat by further search ; but there cannot be much doubt that its use was rare before that date. From about that time, however, the innovation must have spread with great rapidity. Is being v^^s in general col- loquial use in America by the middle of the pres- ent century. III. CIRCUMSTANCES. A DESIRABLE distinction would be made between in the circumstances and under the cir- cumstances, if the use of the latter were restricted to the expression of necessity, constraint, obliga- tion, etc., which is naturally implied in under. If such a distinction were observed, one would say, In these circumstances he decided to favor neither party,, — but. It is difficult to see how they could have done differently under the circum- stances. I do not find, however, this distinction recognized. No Parliament had sat for years. The municipal council of the City had ceased to speak the sense of 14° EMGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. the citizens. Public meetings, harangues, resolutions, and the rest of the modern machinery of agitation had not yet come into fashion. Nothing resembling the modern newspaper existed. In such circumstances the coffee houses were the chief organs through which the public opinion of the metropolis vented itself. — Macaulay, " History of England," vol. i., c. iii. It was inevitable that, in such circumstances, the administration, fiscal, military, naval, should be feeble and unsteady. — lb., vol. iv., c. xi. According to law, torture, the disgrace of the Roman jurisprudence, could not, in any circumstances, be inflicted on an English subject. — Jb., vol. i., c. i. But at the same time I fo'und a man [General Grant, in his Memoirs'^ of sterling good-sense as well as of the firmest resolution ; a man, withal, humane, simple, modest ; from all restless self-consciousness and desire for display perfectly free ; never boastful where he himself was concerned, and where his nation was concerned seldom boastful, boastful only in cir- cumstances where nothing but high genius or high training, I suppose, can save an American from being boastful. — Matthew Arnold, " General Grant. An Estimate," I. Under these circumstances, after a hard day, in which he had really had no regular meal, it seemed a natural relaxation to step into the bar of The Red Lion —George Eliot, " Janet's Repentance," c. i. By this time, however, the ladies had pressed for- ward, curious to know what could have brought the CIRCUMSTANCES. 141 solitary linen-weaver there under such strange circum- stances. — Id., " Silas Marner," c. xiii. But though the painted or sculptured countenance is, under certain circumstances, a spiritual power, yet, as being a work of art, it in all cases puts us beneath the artificer, and may even keep us down to his level. — F. W. Newman, " The Soul," c. ii., p. 18.* Under these circumstances my sketch will of course be incomplete. — J. H. Newman, "Apologia," Preface, p. xxiv. However, I had to do what I could, and what was best under the circumstances. — lb., c. iii., p. 128. but at no time could 1 exercise over others that authority which under the circumstances was imperatively required. — lb., c. ii., p. 59. When, and under what circumstances, did they [oracles] cease ? — De Quincey, " Memorials " (The Pagan Oracles). Not so under the real circumstances of the case. — " Memorials " (Oxford, III.). He [Seymour] had been elected Speaker in the late reign under circumstances which made that distinction peculiarly honourable. — Macaulay, " History of Eng- land," vol. ii., c. iv. Cardinal Newman sometimes uses under cir- * The Soul, Its Sorrows and its Aspirations : An Essay towards the Natural History of the Soul, as the true Basis of Theology. By Francis William Newman. Seventh Edi- tion. London : 1862. 142 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. cumstances in the sense of under certain circum- stances. Political questions are mainly decided by political expediency, and only indirectly and under circum- stances fall into the province of theology. — J. H. Newman, " Historical Sketches," Preface, p. xii. Now as to the latter of these questions, it still must be answered in the affirmative under circumstances. — lb., vol. i.. Lecture vii., p. 179. IV. ELSE. Else is sometimes an adjective, and sometimes an adverb. As an adjective, it follows the noun or pronoun it qualifies ; as, nobody else, something else. When possession is attributed to virhat is qualified by else, the s with its apostrophe should be added to . the else, because, if it be added to the noun or pronoun which precedes else, the else will be made to qualify the wrong word : some- body else's hat ; — not somebody's else hat, for the latter makes else qualify hat, and says what is not meant. Alexander" s the Great empire would be just as proper as somebody's else hat. A usage somewhat like, but not so bad as Alexander s the Great empire, was formerly common ; as, " the miTlAL M. 143 Kynges sister of France " (Fabyan), for the King of France s sister \ " for his grace's sake the car- dinal" (Ford), instead of for his grace the cardi- naFs sake.* " Ford," Dr. Morris says (p. 125), "has nobody's else for nobody else's." In present usage the unity of the subject and its qualifying words is kept in mind, even if no hyphens are used to indicate this unity; as, his son-in-law's house ; the Bishop of Chester's diocese. Like else, the adjectives other and another take the possessive s when they follow the word they qualify. It would be a strange way of speaking to say, " each's other faces " for each other's faces, or " one's another thoughts " for one another's thoughts. V. INITIAL H. There are now but few words in English writ- ten with an initial h which is not sounded in speech. Among these few, herb has not got back its aspirate in the United States, but in England — at least in middle-class usage — the preponderance of authority gives herb the h * Cited with several other instances, in Dr. Morris's " His- torical English Grammar," p. 82. 144 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. sound. I do not think I ever heard an Ameri- can sound the h of herb. examining a flower, or a herb, or a pebble, or a ray of light, .... —J. H. Newman, "Apo- logia," p. 28. There is a considerable number of words beginning with h which have an unaccented first syllable ; — such as heredity, hypothesis, historical, etc. In such words the h, although sounded now, is not ordinarily sounded as distinctly as where it begins an accented syllable. When people talk without thinking of their pronuncia- tion, they sound the h of hypocrite, for instance, more distinctly than in hypocrisy ; but the diiifer- ence in the distinctness varies in the pronuncia- tion of different people. Naturally, then, there is some contrariety of usage as to putting a or an before an unaccented h. Those who sound the h pretty distinctly will be inclined to use a ; while those who weaken the h so much as almost to efface it will just as naturally use an. The practice of good writers is not always self-con- sistent. I think there is a tendency in the United States, at present, to use a in such cases ; but my own ear much prefers an. If the first syllable be accented, even though its accent be INITIAL a. 145 not the principal one, the best usage of the pres- ent day requires a, not an ; as, a horticultural fair. A before an unaccented H. a hereditary seat — Matthew Ar- nold, " Discourses in America," ii., p. 78. a real, not a historic, estimate of poetry — Id., " Essays in Criticism." Second Series. I. .... a hereditary tenure — Ralph Waldo Emerson, " English Traits," c.vi., p. 108. a heredi- tary King a hereditary House of Lords — Edward A. Freeman, " Some Impressions of the United States," p. 137. a hereditary household — Nathaniel Hawthorne, " Marble Faun," vol. i., c. xiii., p. 152. a Hypothe- sis — F. W. Newman, " Theism," p. 14. a hereditary faith — Macaulay, " His- tory of England," vol. iii., c. viii. a hypothesis — lb., vol. ii., c. vi. a heretical nation lb. a historical result — William Dwight Whitney, " Life and Growth of Language," p. 303. a histor- ical science —lb. p. 190. An before an unaccented H. an historical criticism — Matthew Arnold, " Literature and Dogma," c. ix. An historic estimate — Id., "Essays in Criticism." Second Series. I. an historical sense 146 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. —Id. lb., First Series, II. an hereditary lord -De Quincey, " Memorials," v. i., p. 40. an historian /^i P- 210. an historical interest. — George Eliot, " Y.^- %^y%" {Woman in France). an hereditary nobility — lb. {Natural History of German Life). an heraldic wreath, — Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Our Old Home," vol. i., p. 95. an harmonious development . . . . . — Jb., p. 183. an heroic aspect . . . . . — Id., " Marble Faun," vol. i., c. xix. an hereditary aristocracy — William Dean Howells, " A Woman's Reason," c. xxi. ..... an hypothesis — J. H. Newman, " Historical Sketches," vol. i., c. iv., p. 40a an historical clue — lb., p. 416 an habitual notion Id., "Apologia," p. 119. An before one or hundred is archaic, but not obsolete. Such an one is often unsuccessful in his own day. — J. H. Newm^in, " Historical Sketches," vol. ii., c. ii., p. 29. such an one is decidedly marked out by the light of transfiguration, — Nathaniel Haw- thorne, " Blithedale Romance," c. vi. it adds an hundredfold to the difficulties of an absolute government. — Matthew Arnold, " A Word More About America." and thickens an hundredfold the religious confusion in which we live. Id., " Literature and Dogma," c. xi. MUCH. 147 VI. MUCH. There are many phrases in which much is used which would seem very odd, if they were not very familiar. From time to time some of them are challenged, — rather hastily, for most of them can be explained, if we call -to mind that much unites the offices of noun, adjective, and adverb. Thus is converted into an adjective when it is made to qualify much used substantively, — as in thus much of. His [Hawthorne's] subjects are generally not to me subjects of the highest interest ; but his literary talent is of the first order, the finest, I think, which America has yet produced, — finer, by much, than Emerson's. — Matthew Arnold, " Discourses in America "(Emerson), P- 173- There was one paragraph, which, if I rightly guessed its purport, bore reference to Zenobia, but was too darkly hinted to convey even thus much of certainty. — Nathaniel Hawthorne, " The Blithedale Romance," c. xxiii. though some of them have thus much in common with dialectic differences — E. A. Freeman, " Impressions of the United States," p. 65. As to John of Antioch and Dionysius, since their names are not so familiar to most of us, it may be 148 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. advisable to say thus much — J. H. Newman, "Historical Sketches," vol. i., p. 430. The simplest conception we can have of the Time of an entire action is that it is in the Past, the Present, or the Future, and so the forms which do no more than indicate this much are called Simple or Absolute tenses. — Wrightson, " Functional Elements of an Eng- lish Sentence," p. 19. This much, however, I may add, — her years were ripe. — Byron. As to distinction, the case is much the same. — Matthew Arnold, " Civilization in the United States," The Nineteenth Century, April, 1888,— p. 489. they are really much the same. — Id., " Lit- erature and Dogma," c. i. my father was a country parson, born much about the same time as Scott and Wordsworth. — George Eliot, " Impressions of Theophrastus Such," II., p. 29. a dryness very unlike the telling vivacity of the early Edinburgh reviewers, but a fun- damental narrowness, a want of genuine insight, much on a par with theirs. — Matthew Arnold, " Essays in Criticism " (Joubert). Fauriel used to talk of the Scandinavian Teutons and the German Teutons, as if they were two divisions of the same people, and the common notion about them, no doubt, is very much this. — /d., " Celtic Liter- ature," p. 141. His worship probably assembles at his board most OBSERVE. 149 of the eminent citizens and distinguished personages of the town and neighborhood more than once during his year's incumbency, and very much, no doubt, to the promotion of good feeling among individuals of opposite parties and diverse pursuits in life. — Na- thaniel Hawthorne, " Our Old Home " (Civic Ban- quets), p. 371. and become much such another animal as the old Inspector. — Id., " The Scarlet Letter " (The Custom House). This is pretty much the answer which I make, when I am considered in this matter a disciple of St. Al- fonso. — J. H. Newman, " Apologia," c. v., p. 279. VII. OBSERVE. One of the common meanings of observe is, to note in one's mind, to take notice of, as a result of giving attention. A seaman sweeps the hori- zon with hts glass, and observes a sail ; a traveler glances at the sky, and observes a threatening cloud ; a moralist ponders human conduct, and observes certain motives of action. It seems to be a very natural extension of this meaning of observe, to use the vi^ord in the sense, to state or mention vi^hat one has so noticed. Such an ex- tension is so natural and so common, that it is ISO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. often difficult to tell in which of these two senses the word is used. If one says, " I ob- served then that hopefulness itself is a mean toward a desired end," it is quite impossible to decide whether he took notice of the fact, or called somebody else's attention to it by stating it. But evidently there may be an impropriety in using observe in this extended sense, if differ- ences in subject matter be quite disregarded. A person who said, " I rang the bell, and observed that I wanted another buckwheat cake," would be suspected of a pleasantry. I think, then, that observe may be rightly used in a sense very similar to remark, — which has undergone a similar extension of meaning. Ambrose went on to observe, that both they and he had in their way been tempted, as Job was, by the powers of evil. — J. H. Newman, " Historical Sketches," vol. i., p. 35 1. I should observe that the Turks were driven out of Jerusalem by the Fatimites of Egypt, two years before the Crusaders appeared. — lb., p. 102. this only will I observe, — that the truest expedience is to answer right out — Id., " Apologia " (Note F.), p. 347. I observe therefore as follows : — Catholics believe that miracles happen in any age of the Church, —Jb. (Note B.), p. 298. "OF" WITH WORDS OF POSSESSION. 151 And this too I will observe, — that St. Alfonso made many changes of opinion himself in the course of his writings lb. (Note G.), p. 354. Accordingly, in the passage which he quotes, I ob- serve, " Miracles are the kind of facts proper to ecclesi- astical history — lb. (Note B.), p. 299. He observed that, to him, this trance looked more like a visitation of Satan than a proof of divine favour, .... — George Eliot, " Silas Marner," ch. i. De Foe gives us as good an example as can be found : I might here very usefully observe, how necessary and inseparable a companion fear is to guilt. — " Life of Colonel Jack " (Oxford, 1840), p. 317. VIII. "of" used with words expressing pos- session. The comical absurdity of intrusting, as Dr. Mackay proposed, " the correction, improvement, and ascertainment of the English tongue" to "the quiet authority of a Minister of Educa- tion," * could not be so well illustrated as by quoting one of Dr. Mackay's literary dicta ; for Dr. Mackay was a man of scholarly inclinations * The Ascertainment of English. By Charles Mackay, The Nineteenth Century, January, 1890, p. 143. 152 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. and pursuits, and presumably less disqualified for such a post than a government politician. Dr. Mackay, however, wrote : A still more prevalent and more deeply rooted inele- gancy is the use of the possessive case in such phrases as 'a friend of Mr. Jones's,' 'a sister of Mr. Brown's,' ' a whim of Mr. Smith's,' where the s with the apos- trophe is clearly unnecessary. The ' of ' is quite suffi- cient as a mark of the possessive ; . . . . This collo- quialism should be left to the exclusive use of the illit- erate, and never suffered to blossom into print. — lb. Would Dr. Mackay have included in his cen- sure, if they had come into his mind, such phrases as, a friend of mine, an uncle of his, and the like? — for they are open to the same kind of criticism. Dr. Mackay's dislike for the " double possessive " was not shared by some contempor- ary writers whose example is worth consideration . . . this correspondence of Lord Melville's . . — Matthew Arnold, " Study of Celtic Literature," p, 179. . . . this notion of Mr. Meyer's. — lb., 59. . . . this flattering proposal of Mr. Owen's, . . . ^Ib., pp. v-vi. .... the celebi-ated work of St. Augustine's which bears that name [Confessions], . . . — J. H. Newman, " Historical Sketches," vol. ii., p. 224. A letter of Mr. F. Faber's to a friend, .... Id., " Apologia," p. 388. .... this unmanly attempt of his . . . lb., Preface, p. xi'ii. "OF" WITH WORDS OF POSSESSION. 153 This was a young relative of his, — a most remark- able man, . . . — F. W. Newman, " Phases of Faith," c. ii., p. 17. Plato's account of the most gifted and brilliant community of the ancient; world, of that Athens of his to which we all owe so much, is despondent enough. — Matthew Arnold, " Discourses in America " (Numbers). the question is, what is the true meaning of these assertions of his, .... — Id., " Literature and Dogma," c. v., p. 124. excellent fathers may have without any fault of theirs incurably vicious sons. — Id., " Essays in Criticism " (Marcus Aurelius). During this speech of Mrs. Hackit's, Mr. Pilgrim had emitted a succession of little snorts. — George Eliot, " Scenes of Clerical Life " (Amos Barton), c. i., p. 18. That look of his came back on her with a vividness greater than it had had for her in reality. — 16. (Janet's Repentance), c. xvi., p. 213. I know not whether these ancestors of mine be- thought themselves to repent, .... — Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The- Scarlet Letter" (The Custom House) these four friends of ours. .... —Id., "The Marble Faun," v. i., c. i., p. 17. a friend of mine — Id., " The Blithedale Romance," c. vii., p. 63. an early friend of Dr. Newman's — John Earle, " TAe Philology of the English Tongue" p. 546- This " colloquialism," as it w^as called by Dr. Mackay, is riot an innovation, but a survival. 154 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Stand fast together, least some Friend of Cmsars Should chance — . — Shakespeare, " Julius Caesar," Act. III., sc. i. (First Folio — reduced fac- simile. — London : 1876). Soft who comes heere ? A friend of Antonies, — Id., lb. Now happened there after this a greate Shipp of his that then was Pope to arrive at Southampton. — Will- iam Rqper, " Life of Sir Thomas More " (prefixed to Robynson's Translation of " Utopia," — Pitt Press Series), p. viii. whithere on a tyme unlooked for he [Henry VIII.] came to dinner, and after dinner in a faire garden of his walked with him [Sir Thomas More] by the space of an howre houldinge his arm about his neck. — lb., p. xiv. A letter of yours was lately delivered me. — How- ell, " Familiar Letters," Sect. V., xxx. There can be no doubt that this form of ex- pression has a force and value of its owm. It marks possession and a possessor distinctly, A suspicion of Ccesar and a suspicion of Ccesar's are not the same thing. SEEM. 1 55 IX. SEEM. Would seem, should seem. Would is often used to soften the form of say- ing something ; as, It would be better to go now ; It ivould be well to brighten the fire a little. In such cases would can be explained frequently by regarding it as part of the conclusion of a con- ditional sentence, which may, or may not be, distinctly present in the mind ; but sometimes it seems to be used merely for its softening effect. The would of it would seem reduces the assertion to the last degree of moderation. In the locu- tion it should seem so there is an inversion of the order of thought ; it seems that it should or must be so is what is meant when anything really defi- nite is intended. Some writers use both it would seem and it should seem. It would appear is used in the same sense as it would seem, but I have not noticed any instance in which it should appear is used for it should seem. Of late years this [the lecture] has come strangely into vogue, when the natural tendency of things would seem to be to substitute lettered for oral methods of addressing the public. — Nathaniel Hawthorne, " The Blithedale Romance," c. xxiii. 1S6 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Meanwhile, by the silent operation of the mechanism behind the scenes, a considerable space of time would seem to have lapsed over the street. — Id., " Main Street " (Twice Told Tales). The extremes of poverty and ascetic penance, it would seem, never reach cold water in England. Wood the antiquary, in describing the poverty and maceration of Father Lacey, an English Jesuit, does not deny him beer. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, " Eng- lish Traits," c. iv. theologians having precisely, as it would seem, built up a wall first, in order afterwards to run their own heads against it. — Matthew Arnold, " Litera- ture and Dogma," c. i. Jerusalem, it would seem, was considered a safe place for the experiment. — J. H. Newman, " Apologia," c. iii., p. 141. He had, as it would seem, a vigour, elasticity, and, what may be called, sunniness of mind, all his own. — Id., " Historical Sketches," vol. ii. (St. Chrysostom, c. ii.), p. 237. but his statements were met by the dissent, or the hesitation, as it would appear, of men of his own schools — Ii. (The Benedictine Schools, § 6), p. 486. Old as he was, enfeebled by recent illness, ignorant of the country and sensitive to the climate, and, as it would appear, without attendants, he [St. Chrysostom] had to face the wild winter as he best could, .... Id. (St. Chrysostom, c. v.), pp. 293-4. SEEM. 157 It would seem as if the consciousness which the moral agent has of the task before it, influenced a present utterance by the presentiment of that which is to follow. — John Earle, " The Philology of the Eng- lish Tongue,'' p. 129, § 127. It would almost seem that in proportion as the spontaneous modulation of the voice comes to perfec- tion, in the same degree the range of this most generic of all interjections becomes enlarged, and that according to the tone in which oh is uttered, it may be understood to mean almost any one of the emotions of which humanity is capable. — lb., pp. 189-90, § 196. Any idle boy, it should seem, singing to himself, and setting his wordless song to no other or more definite tune than the play of his own pulses, might produce a sound almost identical with this. — Nathaniel Haw- thorne, " The Marble Faun," vol. ii., c. ii., p. 28. He was a youth of barely eighteen years, evidently country-bred, and now, as it should seem, upon his first visit to town. — Id., " My Kinsman, Major Moli- ueux " (Twice Told Tales). It should seem that these arguments admit of no reply. — Macaulay, " History of England," vol. iii., c. x. This amendment was adopted, it should seem, with scarcely any debate, and without a division. — lb. Temple, it should seem, was desirous to secure to the legislature its undoubted constitutional powers, .... — /i., c. ii. When a country is in the situation in which England iS^ ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. then was, ... it should seem that the course which ought to be taken is obvious. — lb., c. i. And yet there was a likeness, not so much speaking as immanent, not so much in any particular feature as upon the whole. It should seem, I thought, as if when the master set his signature to that grave can- vas, he had not only caught the image of one smiling and false-eyed woman, but stamped the essential quality of a race. — Robert Louis Stevenson," Olalla." — " The Merry Men and other Tales and Fables." New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887. — p. 179. X. SUDDEN. On a sudden ; of a sudden ; all of a sudden. On a sudden, when used without all, is better established now, I think, than of a sudden. Men who had never before had a scruple, had on a sudden become strangely scrupulous. — Macaulay, " History of England," vol. ii., ch. vi. On a sudden it was announced that it was not con- venient to pay the principal, and that the lenders must content themselves with interest. — lb., vol. i., ch. ii. On a sudden a gleam of hope appeared. — lb. Governments which lately seemed likely to stand during ages have been on a sudden shaken and overr thrown. — lb., vol. iii., ch. x. SUDDEN. 159 The tribunal, lately so insolent, became on a sud- den strangely tame. — lb., vol. iii., ch. ix. I considered that Mr. Peel had taken the University by surprise ; that his friends had no right to call upon us to turn round on a sudden, and to expose ourselves to the imputation of time-serving. — J. H. Newman, " Apologia," ch. i., p. 14. but their full character in this respect came on me almost on a sudden. — lb. (Additional Notes), p. 386. The little woman, attacked on a sudden, but never without arms, lighted up in an instant, parried and reposted with a home-thrust, which made Wagg's face tingle with shame — Thackeray, " Vanity Fair," ch. li. But all of a sudden is used more than all on a sudden. Anon they stopt all of a sudden, and staring at one another's figures, set up a roar of laughter — Nathaniel Hawthorne, " The Blithedale Romance," ch. xxiv. just as, in human acquaintanceship, a casual opening sometimes lets us, all of a sudden, into the long-sought intimacy of a mysterious heart. — lb., ch. xi. then, after loitering in the rear, he came galloping up, like a charge of cavalry, but halted all of a sudden —Id., " The Marble Faun,"_ vol. ii., ch. xxi. i6o ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. All of a sudden, Violet cried out, loudly and joy- fully —Id., " The Snow-Image." How came it that all of a sudden Mrs. Bingley began to raise her voice and bellow like a bull of Bashan ? — Thackeray, " Pendennis," ch. xiv. The lamps are lighted up all of a sudden. — Id., " Vanity Fair," ch. li. sometimes behaving as if he didn't want to speak to her, and taking no notice of her for weeks and weeks, and then, all oh a sudden, almost making love again — George Eliot, "Silas Marner," ch. xi. Both of a sudden and on a sudden have been in use for centuries. The partial displacement of the former by the latter is rather recent. INDEXES. r6i INDEX OF NAMES AND TITLES. *i^* A foot note is indicated by f after a page number. Addison, Joseph, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, 57, 62. Alexander the Great, 142. Alfonso, St., 149, 151. Ambrose, St., 150. Anna, Queen, 7, 55 f. Annandale, Dr., 33. Antony, Mark, 154. Arnold, Matthew, 44, 108, 124. Civilization in the United States, 137, 148. General Grant, An Esti- mate, 140. A Word More About America, 146. Discourses in America, 86, 145, 147, 153. Essays in Criticism, 77, 136, 145, 146, 148, 153. Essays itl Criticism, Second Series, 133, 136-7, 145. Literature and Dogma, 136,145-6, 148,153,156. On the Study of Celtic Literature, ^^, 148. Astor Library, 50. Athens, 153. Austen, Jane, Emma: A Novel, 134-5. Australians, ii8. Bacon, Francis, 6 f., 23-4. Bailey, N., 19. The Antiquities of London and Westminster, 19, 52, 62. DictionariumDomesticum, 20, 21. Translation of Colloquies of Erasmus, 19. AnUniversal Etymological English Dictionary, 14, 19, 21-4, 52. An Additional Collection of Words not in the First Volume, 14. Baldwin, Simeon, 29. Baltimore, 47. Barcelona, 56. Belfast, 79. Bible, The, 78, 134. Blackburn, Henry, Normandy Picturesque, 74. Blades, William, The Biography and Ty- pography of William Caxton, 59. Blount, Thomas, Glossographia, 7, li, 14. A World of Errors, 8. Bodleian Library, 9. Boston, 59. Brace, The Hon. Jona, 29. Bright, The Right Hon. John, 91. Broadway, 89. 163 164 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Bruges, 59. Bulloker, Dr. J., An English Expositour, 10, II, 12, 19, 28. Byron, 85, 148. Csesar, Julius, 154. California, 20. Canterbury, 48-9, 54. Catalunia, 56. Caxton, William, 59. Century Dictionary, The, 33-4. Century Magazine, The, 34. Chapman, George, 75. Cheops, 26. Chester, The Bishop of, 143. Chicago, 47. Church, The, 64. Cincinnati, 61-2, 89. Claudian, 57. Cocker's Dictionary, 13. Cockeram, H., The English Dictionary, 11,28. Coke, Sir Edward, 5. Coles, E., An English Dictionary, 1 1, 52, 62. Common Pleas, The, 5. Commons, The House of, 6. Cowdrey, Robert, A Table Alphabetical!, 9. Cowel, John, The Interpreter, 5, 6. De Foe, Daniel, L'.re of Colonel Jack,. 151. Depew, Dr. Chauncey Mit- chell, 90. De Quincey, Thomas, 87, 91, 124. Confessions of An English Opium Eater and Sus- piria de Profundis, 51, 63, 87-8. Memorials and Other Pa- pers, 76-7,80,81,141,146. Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, 4. Dickens, Charles, 51. AmericanNotes,62-3,84-5. Dictionaries.Glossaries, etc.* An Universal Etymologic- al Dictionary. By N. Bailey, 14, 19, 21-24, S^- An Additional Collection of Words not in the First Volume, 14. Dictionarium Domesticum, Being a New and Corn- pleat Houshold Dic- tionary. By N. Bailey, 20, 21. Glossographia, or A Dic- tionary interpreting all such hard words [etc.] By T[homas] B[lount], 7, 11-4. An English Expositour, By J[ohn] B[ulloker], 10, 1 1-2, 19, 28. The Century Dictionary, 33-4- The English Dictionary, or An Interpreter of Hard English words. By H[enry] C[ockeram], 11,28. Cocker's English Diction- ary. Perused and puh- * The titles of dictionaries, glossaries, etc. (usually condensed or abbrevi- ated) are arranged in' the alphabetical order of the names of their makers, except in the few cases where the works are generally known by the titles themselves. INDEX OF NAMES AND TITLES. i6S Dictionaries — Continued. lished. . . by John Haw- kins, 13. An English Dictionary. By E. Coles, 11, 52, 62. A Table Alphabeticall. By Robert Cowdrey, 9. The Interpreter, or Book containing the Significa- cation of Words. By John Cowel, 5, 6. A New General English Dictionary orig- inally begun by the late Reverend Thomas Dyche and now finished by William Par- don, Gent, 52. A selected pronouncing and accented Diction- ary. By John Elliott. . . . . and Samuel John- son, jun'r, 28-9, 60 f. The Encyclopasdic Dic- tionary, 33-4. A Worid of Wordes. By John Florio, 6, 55 f. Queen Anna's New World of Words. By John Florio, 7, SS f- Glossographia Anglicana Nova, 13, 14. ■ A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. By James Orchard Hal- liwell, 79 f. The Imperial Dictionary, 33- A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language. By Sam- uel Johnson, 6, 23-6, 31, 93- A School Dictionary. Being a Compendium of Dictionaries — Continued. the latest and most Im- proved Dictionaries. By Samuel Johnson, Jun'r, 28-9, 60. A New English Diction- ary. By J. K., 16-9, 21. Dictionarium Anglo-Bri- tannicum; or A General English Dictionary. By John Kersey, 14, 18. A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language. By Rob- ert Gordon Latham, 25. The Guide into the Tongues, By John Minsheu, 9 f. The American Gazetteer. By Jedidiah Morse, 59, 60. Dictionary of National Biography, 4. A New English Diction- ary on Historical Prin- ciples, 34-44. The New World of Eng- lish Words. By E[dward] P[hillips], 6, 7, 22. A Vocabulary [etc.]. By John Pickering, 29 f.-30, 84. A New Dictionary of the English Language. By Charles Richardson, 27. Dictionnaire de la Langue Frangoise, Ancienne at Moderne, de Pierre Richelet, 55 f. A General Dictionary of the English Language. By Thomas Sheridan, 26-7. An Etymological Diction- 1 66 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Dictionaries — Continued. ary of the English Lan- guage, By the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, 48, 49. SO. 54. 64. Etymologicon Linguaa An- glicanas. Autore Steph- ano Skinner, 5, 6, 12. Walker Remodelled : a New Critical Pronounc- ing Dictionary of the English Language. By B. H. Smart, 26. Glossarium Archaiologi- cum. Autore Henrico Spelmanno, 5. A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language. ... By Samuel Johnson, LL.D. With numerous correc- tions [etc.]. By the Rev. H. J. Todd, 25. Dictionnaire de Tr^voux, 55 f. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Exposi- tor of the English Lan- guage. By John Walk- er, 26, 1 1 5-6. An American Dictionary of the English Language. By Noah Webster, 25, 30-32, 78, 95. A Compendious Diction- ary of the English Lan- guage. By Noah Web- ster, 30. A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language. By Jo- seph E. Worcester, 32, 79. ' Johnson's English Diction- ary as improved by Todd, and abridged by Dictionaries —Continued. Chalmers, with Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary combined. By Joseph E. Worcester, 32. Discriminate, .... A Man-, ual, 131. Dover, 93. Dryden, John, 24, 93. Dublin, 54. Dwight, Theodore, 29. Dyche and Pardon's Diction- ary, 52. Earle, Prof. John, The Philology of the Eng- lish Tongue, 133-4. 153. 157. Ecbatane, 56. Edinburgh, 58. Eliot, George, 91, 124. Essays, 146. Impressions of Theophras- tus Such, 148. Scenes of Clerical Life, 51, 63.77.135. 140.153- Silas Marner, 132-3, 136, 140, 141, 151, 160. The Lifted Veil, 136. Elizabeth, Queen, 54 f. Elliott, John, 29. Elliott and Johnson's Dic- tionary, 28-9, 60. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 147. English Traits, 145, 156. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 44. Encyclopaedic Dictionary, The, 33-34. English Dialect Society, The, Transactions, 3. Erasmus, Colloquies of, 19. Faber, F,, 152. INDEX OF NAMES AND TITLES. 167 Fabyan, Robert, 143. Fawksbrush, Lord, 108. Florio, John, A Worlde of Wordes,6, 55. Queen Anna's New World of Words, 7, 55 f. Forby, The Rev. Robert, 79, Ford, John, 143. Fortnightly Review, The, 74. Freeman, Edward A., Some Impressions of the United States, 47, 90, no. III, 137-8, 145, 147. Some Points in American Speech and Customs, 48, SO- Froude, Hurrell, 81. Garrick, David, 53. Genoa, 57. Gibbon, Edward, The History of the De- cline and Fall of the Ro- man Empire, 57, 58 f.,62. Glossographia Anglicana Nova, 13-4. Goodrich, The Hon. Chaun- cey, 29. Goodrich, The Hon. Elizur, 29. Gordon, L. D. B., Plans of Captain Vetch for the Sewerage of the Metropolis, 50. Grant, General, 140. Greenwich, 113. Hall, Captain Basil, 91, 95. Travels in North America, 92-5. Hall, Dr. Fitzedward, 40-1, 138. Modern English, 80, 135. Halliwell, James Orchard, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 79 f. Hawkins, John, 13. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 82, 124-5, 147- The Blithedale Romance, 146-7. 153. 155. IS9. The Marble Faun, 82, 145, 146, 153, 157. 159. Our Old Home, and Eng- lish Note-Books, 132, 136, 146, 148-9. The Snow-Image and other Twice-told Tales, 131-2, 156, 157, 160. ' The Scarlet Letter, 149, IS3- Heber, Bishop, 85. Hemans, Mrs., 85. Holinshed's Chronicles, 54. Honorius, 57. Hooker, John, 54. The Supplie of the Irish Chronicles, 54 f., 62. Howell, James, Familiar Letters, 56, 62, 154. Howells, William Dean, A Woman's Reason, 146. Hudson River, The, 95. Imperial Dictionary, The, 33- James I., 6. James Gazette, The Saint, 74. Jerusalem, 156. Johnson, Samuel, A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language, 6, 23-6, 31. 93- i68 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Johnson, Samuel, Tun'r, 29, 60 f. A School Dictionary, 28-9, 60 f. K., J.— A New English Dic- tionary, 16-9, 21. Kersey, John, 18. Dictionarium Anglo-Bri- tannicum, 14, 18. Kitchel, The Rev. Cornelius Ladd, 4. Latham, Robert Gordon, 26. A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language, 25. Leigh's New Picture of Lon- don, 50. Leisure Hour Series, 19. L'Estrange, Sir Roger, 24. Locke, John, 23, 24. London, 48-53, 87. Longman's Magazine, 48. Lover of the Arts, A, 10. Macaulay, Lord, 91, 124. The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, 51, 58-9. 63, 76, 132, 140, 141, 14s, 157-9. Mackay, Dr. Charles, 15 1-2. The Ascertainment of English, 107-9, 151-3- Medes, The empire of, 57. Memphis, 62. Milan, 57. Milton, John, 72. . Paradise Lost, 56, 62. Minister of Education, A, 107-9. Minsheu, John, The Guide into the Tongues, 9 f. Mississippi River, The, 94. More, Sir Thomas, 54. Utopia, 154. Morris, The Rev. Richard, Historical English Gram- mar, 137, 142-3. Morse, Jedidiah, The American Gazetteer, 59. 60. Nation, The, 40. New English Dictionary, A, 16-9, 21. New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, A, 34-44- Newgate, 53. Newman, Francis William, 124. A History of the Hebrew Monarchy, 58, 63. Phases of Faith, 86, 153. The Soul, 141. Theism, Doctrinal and Practical, 145. Newman, John Henry Car- dinal, 91, 124-5, 133-4. Apologia pro Vita Sua, 76- 7,81,86-7,135,141,144, 146, 149, 150-2, 156, 159. Essays Critical and His- torical, 135. Historical Sketches, 58, 63, 76, 81, 82, 86, 135, 141, 142, 146-8, 150, 156. New Haven, 95. New York,47, 61,62, 89, 113. Nineteenth Century, The, 107 f., 137, 151 f. Notes and Queries, 4,9^,19 f. Oliphant, T. L. Kington, "The New Enghsh,4i, 138, 139- INDEX OF NAMES AND TITLES. 169 Oliphant — Continued. The Old and Middle Eng- lish, 137. Oxford Street, 87, 88. Pantheon, The, 87, 88. Pardon, William, 52. Paris, 53. Pavia, 57. Philadelphia, 61, 89. Phillips, E., 7. The New World of Eng- lish Words, 6, 7, 22. Phillips, J., Translation of Tavernier's Voyages, 57, 62. Philological Society, The, 34, 43 f" 44- Transactions, 3. Pickering, John, Vocabulary, 29, 30 f., 84. Pope, Alexander, 85. Plato, 153. Richardson, Charles, A New Dictionary of the English Language, 27. Richelet, Pierre, Dictionnaire de la Langue Frangoise, 55 f. Rochester, 91, 92, 95. Roman Empire, The, 64. Rome, 57, 58, 58 f. Roper, William, Life of Sir Thomas More, 154.. S., G. W., 72. Scott, Sir Walter, 91. Scriptorium, The, 44. Shakespeare, 75, 85. Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 26. Sheridan, Thomas, A General Dictionary of the English Language, 26, 27. Shillingford, John, Letters and Papers, 4 1 ,4 1 f ., 138. Sidney, Sir Phillip, 6 f. Skeat, The Rev. Walter W., An Etymological Diction- ary of the English Lan- guage, 48, 49, 50, 54, 64. Bibliographical List, 3. Skinner, Stephen, Etymologicon Linguas An- glicanas, 5, 6, 12. Smart, B. H., Walker Remodelled, 26. Smith and Kilrain, 72. Southampton, 154. Spelman, Sir Henry, Glossarium ^rchaiologi- cum, 5. Spenser, Edmund, The Faery Queene, jy, 78. Sterne, Laurence, 53, 62. A Sentimental Journey througl^ France and Italy, 93. Stevenson, Robert Louis, The Master of Ballantrae, 30 f. The Merry Men, 158. Strong, Esq., His Excellency Caleb, 30 f. Swift, Jonathan, 24. Tauris, 56. Tavernier, John Baptista, Voyages, 57. Tennyson, Alfred Lord, Poems, 58, 83, 93, 94. Thackeray, William Make- peace, 51, 75, 76, 82, 91. 170 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Thackeray — Continued. Pendennis, 63, 82, 85, 86, 13s, 160. Vanity Fair, 159, 160. Todd, The Rev. H. J., Editions of Johnson's Dic- tionary, 25. Trollope, Mrs. Frances, Domestic Manners of the Americans, 61, 62, 89. Utopia, 154. Van Name, Addison, 4. Vetch, Captain James, 50. Wadenfield, Dr., 20. Walker, John, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, 26, 115, 116. Washington, 60. Webster, Noah, 29, 95. An American Dictionary of the English Lan- guage, 25, 30-32, 78, 95-. A Compendious Diction- ary of the English Lan- guage, 30. Westchester Co. (N. Y.), 73. Westminster, 19. Wheatley, Henry B., Chronological Notices, 3, 9 f- 14 f. White, Richard Grant, Words and their Uses, 79, 80 f., 82 f. Whitney, William Dwight, The Life and Growth of Language, 145. Worcester, Joseph E., 32. Chalmer's Abridgment, 32. A Dictionary of the Eng- lish Language, 32, 79. Wordsworth, 87. Wright, Frances, Views of Society and Manners in America, 61, 135- Wriglitson, The Rev. W. G., Functional Elements of an English Sentence, 137, 148. Yale College, 29 f. University, 4. Zenobia, 147. INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES. A, an, 144-6 : a hereditary seat, tenure, etc., 145, a heretical nation, 145, a historic estimate, 145, a historical result, 145, a hypothesis, 145 ; an habitual notion, 146, an harmonious develop- ment, 146, an heraldic wreath, 146, an hereditary lord, nobility, etc., 146, an heroic aspect, 146, an historian, 146, an historic estimate, 145, an historical interest, clue, etc., 146, an hundredfold, 146, an hypothesis, 146, an one, 146. Abound in, with, 122. Accept, accept of, 122. Acclimated^ 94. Admiring, 74. Affinity for, to, with, 122. All, 1 31-3 : all about, 132, all along, 86, 87, 132, all down, 132, all over, 131, 132, all through, 131, 133, it is all over, 131. American, 118. Andiron, 14. Another, one another's, 143. Antecedents, 79-82. Apothecary, 87. Appear, it would, 155, 156. As— as, 122. Audience, 71-5. Aurist, 7. Australian, 118. Autograph, 7. Autumn, 93. Balance, 94. Being, — is being made, built, etc., 40, 41, 133-9. Bibliography, 7. Bids fair, 119. Bilin (boiling), 106, 109. Bishop of Chester's diocese. The, 143. Blabs, 22. Burying ground, 92. By much, 147. Camel (definition), 19. Cane brake, 94. Cart, 94. Cat (definition), 14, 19. Chaw (chew), 106, 109. Cheat, A, 22. Check, A, 94. Chemist, 87. Chu (chew), 109. Church yard, 91, 92. 171 172 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Circumstances, 139-142 : in the circumstances ; under the circumstances ; under circumstances, 141-2. City: capital city, 59, cathedral city, 48, 49, chief city, 53-65, mother city, 48, 64. Coach, 92. Cold (definition), 23. Compare to, with, 122. Connective words, 121-5. Corn-cob, 94. Cracker, 94. Creek, 94. Crevasse, 94. Cynicall, 11. Different from, to, 75-7. Directly, 85. Dog (definition), 14. Druggist, 87-8. Dutch (German), 12. Else, 142-3 : nobody else, nobody else's, something else, somebody else's. English, 117. English, good, 99-126. English, good American, 1 11-5. Epitome, 52. Esquire, used with honour- able, excellency, etc., 29 f., 30 f. Establishment, 74. Evangelize, 7. Fall (autumn), 93, 94. Ferocious, 7. Fork (definition), 19. Founded, 25, 26. Freight car, freight train, 90. G final, in an unaccented syllable, 106. Gal (girl), 106, 109. Geal (g^rl), 109. Gearding (garden), 106. Gerl (girl), 109. Goods train, goods wagon; 90. Grace, — for his grace's sake, 143- Grammar, 118, 118 f. Grapevine, 78. Grave yard, 91, 92. H (initial), 143-7. Heat (definition), 23. Her, — it's her, 106. Heraldry, 14. Herb, 143, 144. Him, — that's him, him and me done it, 106. His, — an uncle of his, 152-3 : a greate Shipp of his, 154, a faire Garden of his, 1 54. Hors (horse), 109. Horse (pronunciation), 106, 109. Horse (definition), 19. Horticultural, 145. Hos, hoss, — horse, 106, 109. Hwen (when), 109. Idiom, idiomatic, 118, 118 f., 119, 120. Informer, 22. Inimical, 7. Judicial department, 94. Judiciary, 94. Jug. 94- INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES. 173 Kynges sister of France, The, 142-3. Law, to answer the law, 54. Lot, 95. MetropoFe, 54, 55, 62, 63, 64. Metropoli, 55, 63. Metropolis, 45-65. Metropolitan, 48, 50. Metropolitanes, 54. Mine, a friend of, 1 52. Misanthropist, 7. Mother city, 48, 64. Much, 147-9 : by much, 147, much about the same, 148, much the same, 148, much such, 149, much to, 149, much on a par, 148, pretty much, 149, this much, 148, thus much, 147-8, thus much of, 147. Needs, must needs, 22. Nobodies, 81. Nobody, — nobody else's, no- body's else, 143. Notes of, on, 122. Observe, 149-151. Of, — a suspicion of Cassar, a suspicion of Caesar's, 1 54. Of, with words of possession, 151-4. Onology, 7. Other, — each other's, 143. Our, 106. Pitcher, 94. Power, 106. Prairie, 94. Province, 48, 51, 54. Put up with, 119. Railroad, railway, 90, 91, Reference books, 44. Remark, 150. Rid'n (riding), 106. Right away, 84-6. S, possessive : a friend of Mr. 's, 152, some friend of Cassar's, 154- a friend of Antonies, 1 54. Sale, — put to sale, 41. Sawyer, 94. Seaboard, 94. Seat, 52. Section, 95. Seem, — would seem, should seem, 155-8, it should seem so, 155. Seised of tenements, 41. Sett'n (sitting), 106. Sharpers, 22. Shingle, 94. Shop, 95. Slates, wooden, 94. Sick, 94. Sidewalk, 88, 89. Snag, 94. So — as, 122. Son-in-law's house,, 143. Spring, 93. Squatter, 95. Stage, 92, 93, 95. Stage coach, 93, 95. Stateroom, 89. Store, 95. Style, 99, 100, u8. Sudden, 158-160 : on a sudden, of a sudden, all of a sudden. 174 ENGLISH LANGUAGE TOPICS. Swampy, 95. Tenses, Simple or Absolute, 148. This much, 148. Thus, 147. Thus much, 147-8. Town, — chief town, 55, 65, Trick, to, 22. Trottoir, 89. Umbrel, 10. Universe, 52. Vine, 77-9 : cucumber vine, 78, hop vine, 78, pumpkin vine, 78. Wagon, one-horse, 94. Wand, 83, 84. Wen (when), 106, 109, Yalleh (yellow), 106. Yard-stick, 83, 84. Yard-wand, 83, 84. SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE. Cardinal Newman is quoted oftener in these pages than any other writer. It is proper to say of references to him as an author living, that the plates of this little book were ready for the press before the death (August ii, 1890) of the great master of nineteenth century English. fe," ■■■";-..■■•/■■•■ ,. • ' :^'. ^■^--