PS 
 3178 
 .C355 
 1885 
 
DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 c'cL 
 
 Form 934— 20M— 8-34— C.P.Co. 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 i\ .... 
 
 •'WORDS AND THEIE USES ;*' 
 • E VERY-DAY ENGLISH f ! 
 "H MALADY IN ENGLAND;" 
 
 . —Richard Grant White. 
 
 By Prof. M. CALLAWAY, D. D 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF EMORY COLLEGE, OXFORD, GA. 
 
 REPRINT FROM 
 
 0 u a r :erly review, m. e. church, south 
 
 J. \V. HTNTOX. D.D., Etfiftw, Macox, Ga. 
 Terms— $2.50, Cash in Advance. 
 
 MACON, GEORGIA: 
 J. W. KIRKK .fc CO.. PRINTERS. STATIONERS AND BINDKRS. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/fortunatefloggin01call 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 By Prof. M. CALLAWAY, D. D., 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF EMORY COLLEGE, OXFORD, GEORGIA. 
 
 "You are a stupid, idle boy, sir, and have neglected your task in 
 English Grammar. I shall punish you. Hold out your hand." 
 
 " I was just five and a half years old," says Richard Grant White, 
 " when one Alfred Ely, may his soul rest in peace, thus addressing me, 
 proceeded to reduce my little hand, just well in gristle, as nearly to a 
 jelly as he thought beneficial." 
 
 Ely was a kinsman of Squeers. But though a lineal descendant, 
 his absurdity was neither so gross nor so grotesque as that of his bet- 
 ter known progenitor. The robust ignorance of the elder becomes 
 flaccid in the younger pedagogue. Squeers deserves and holds the 
 patriarchate of his family, and will continue to hold it through 
 his unique merit and the genius of his biographer. Ely will be known 
 only by the chance display of his Yorkshire origin. 
 
 Indeed, we should not know Ely at all in this classic genealogy, 
 had he not flogged young Richard ; nor should we perhaps have the 
 grown up Mr. White in his role of author, but for his failure to con 
 that now historic lesson. The force of the ferule, we take it, has been 
 his incitement. A seemingly fatal, but a really fortunate day was 
 that when Richard, in pain and disgust, forsook J 1 is master; for with 
 the shame and suffering, there must, though unconsciously, have come 
 to him the purpose to reverse Ely's judgment. If so, right persist- 
 ently has he cherished his grudge, and right nobly achieved his vindi- 
 cation from dullness; for paradoxical as it may appear, he has mas- 
 tered a grammar which he assures us does not exist. 
 
 What may have been the occasion or the cause of Mr. White's devo- 
 tion to discussions in language is of no concern ; the fact of his devo- 
 tion, however, has become of interest to the general reader and to 
 scholars. He has compelled attention. 
 
 Convictions on any subject are to be respected, and Mr. White has 
 convictions, and he publishes them. He presents them freely and 
 boldly, always; at times, effectively. The English language, he 
 thinks, is the fittest vehicle that ever carried the thought of a people. 
 
 P83C43 
 
2 
 
 A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 We share his conviction. The latest language of acknowledged rank, 
 it ought to be the best suited for home life and for literature, and is 
 fast gaining that eminence. The admiration of the language manifest 
 in Mr. White's advocacy of its study, shames our indifference to the 
 proprieties of its use, and our recklessness in its misuse. As an earn- 
 est of the success of his labor, his works are read ; no slight distinction 
 for one who appeals to the intellect and to unselfish sentiment only. 
 It is, too, to the credit of the growing good sense and loyal instinct 
 of readers of to-day that in such numbers they appreciate the works of 
 Matthews, White, Scheie de Vere and Marsh; and even of March, 
 Whitney and MiiHer. In the course of time, " Words and Their 
 Uses," and "Every-day English, 7 ' may have as wide a circulation 
 as the " Diversions of Purley." 
 
 Successful before the public and recognized by scholars in this 
 country and in England, as deserving of notice and patronage, it seems 
 somewhat out of place, if not out of taste, for Mr. White to disclaim 
 professional equipment in the departments of learning he so confi- 
 dently discusses. His attainments justly class him with linguistic schol- 
 ars, and in so far as the every-day duties of language are involved, his 
 insight and aptness make him the peer of the most erudite of them. 
 The attention early won by his timely articles in the "Galaxy" and 
 other journals, he has creditably kept; and the respect accorded his dis- 
 sertations is merging in appreciation. His success, however, heightens 
 the unseemliness of his disclaimer, and the manner of his controversy 
 gives no relief to the unpleasant impression its iteration produces. 
 For in spite of this self-disparagement, he does not hesitate to chal- 
 lenge any knight of the pen who crosses his path, nor to challenge 
 any form of words, from a sign over a victuals stall to the text of 
 Chaucer, from the idol a fori to the idola theatri. This laic disavowal 
 of learning is not the device of a demagogue, for enthusiasm does not 
 admit of policy; and Mr. White is enthusiastic. It may be that, at 
 some ill-starred moment, having rashly "sworn to his hurt, he pro- 
 poses to change not;" or possibly when he grasps the pen, Ely, like 
 the ghost of Banquo, is mockingly present. 
 
 Beyond perad venture he is popularizing linguistic studies. To 
 this end Horne Tooke and Trench heretofore labored, but they reached 
 a select class only. Less conventional, and introducing himself 
 through the periodicals of the day to a larger circle, our author has 
 been more fortunate. Besides, there is about him a chivalric dash 
 that is captivating. He enters the list as a free lance and trusts alone 
 to the vigor of his thrusts for recognition. And if now and then he 
 makes a Quixotic fight, in the main his combats are real ones, and for 
 cause. Eminently an independent if not a rebel in the 'republic of 
 letters he declines to subsribe to declared scholastic tests. 
 
 That "usage" is the law of language he roundly denies. The arbi- 
 ters to which he would refer all questions of speech are "reason and 
 taste." Admirable ideals, forsooth, are they, if we can place and 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 3 
 
 attain unto them. But can we practically and satisfactorily realize 
 the significance of these terras as employed, or utilize the guidance 
 they should furnish ? We are not so sure indeed that, in offering 
 this dual reference, nor in his revised setting forth of it, that he dis- 
 plays li is wonted clearness of conception and expression, or his usual 
 unyielding certitude. This want of perspicuity and this slight con- 
 cession to possible error, he would be the readiest to detect were they 
 the faults of another, for he is constitutionally vigilant. But of a 
 truth, hesitancy and haziness could hardly be avoided when the hazard 
 of the undertaking is apprehended. Learners, and scholars, too, for 
 that matter, require objective guides, to say the least, perceptible and 
 accessible ones. Abstract and unplaced criteria are confusing, if not 
 confounding. Now, outside of personal endowments, reason, as an 
 arbiter, is inapprehensible. It is as vague as Schopenhauer's theory 
 of " will," or Hartman's of " monism." Our author surely does not 
 commend a suum cidque standard that would invalidate his own 
 supremacy. Should we conceive of one, after exhausting his own 
 capacity and acquirements seeking clear light or confirmation of judg- 
 ment from without, to whom shall he go? or to what shall he refer? 
 Is there any supreme intellectual judicatory, any scientific association, 
 any literary salon which could in any universal sense meet the high 
 behests of " reason and taste?" Even in religion, a normal necessity, 
 there is no catholic canon of truth. Pagan and Christian alike elects 
 his own god, and subscribes to his preferred oracles. What better 
 then can the doubter in letters do than to accept and conform to such 
 measure of excellence as is most approved and is easiest of approach ? 
 In a given branch of study, what safer course is there for the student 
 than to consult those who have familiarized themselves with its his- 
 tory, nature and possibilities? Nay, further, we may ask, can abso- 
 lute reason be exercised in other than moral, metaphysical and 
 mathematical questions, in which there may be absolute right and 
 wrong? There being, from the nature of things, no infallibly correct 
 standard of speech, the reason can be employed only in discriminating 
 rival forms of speech as to effectiveness and acceptability. But then 
 the conclusion would be subject to revision and reversal. The laws 
 of speech, such as they are, like civil statutes, are the result of a pre- 
 vious and often tacitly converging consent. The principle of the 
 habeas corpus was in the hearts of our Saxon ancestors before its 
 promulgation at Kunymede. And intelligent men had observed the 
 tendency to certain forms in conversation and writing before works 
 on grammar, rhetoric and logic were formulated. These sciences only 
 declare what is already to be found in society and literature, just as a 
 law only proclaims the judgment of a people. But in the matter of 
 language the history of a precedent is more difficult to give than the 
 history of a principle in constitutional law. The existence of words 
 cannot always be accounted for, and historically they can be traced 
 only through extant literature. We may find our English <! ara." in 
 
 P63043 
 
4 
 
 A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 the Sanskrit "asmi." But after all, " asmi" is not really our " am," 
 nor does the fact of relationship answer the " why" of its original use. 
 The use of reason in the consideration of forms is a later work, com- 
 ing after the language is advanced to something of maturity. Indeed, 
 it is not too much to say that it cannot be exercised in determining 
 idiomatic forms. Can reason determine whether men shall say with 
 the French, eheval noire, or " black horse" after the manner of the 
 English-speaking? Would not reason become unreasoning were it 
 to set itself to adjusting an idiom ? 
 
 Moreover there are some, who, whatever may be their capability 
 in special directions, are without the discipline essential to qualify 
 them for the subtler exercises of "reason and taste/ 7 No doubt Mr. 
 White writes for a class much in need of this awakening; but with 
 somewhat more of caution in the declaration ot his opinions, he might 
 at the same time, be equally stimulative to a less instructed class. 
 We fear, indeed, that he over-gauges the recipiency of those for whom 
 he specifically writes. Be this as it may, the lower classes in city and 
 country are not helpfully reached in their educational and social wants, 
 because their wants are not definitely known, nor practically con- 
 sidered. It is an easy thing to speak English, if born to the blessing 
 of a home, where, from those about us, we gather words with as little 
 thought as we pluck flowers, and are so surrounded by blocks and 
 books, and by papers and pictures, that we cannot recall the time 
 when we could not read. Most children in the United States are not 
 born in such a home nor to the heritage of such helps. Few of "our 
 forefathers were in the habit of getting themselves born in and about 
 Middlefcown, Connecticut," nor can many boast that " both of their 
 grandfathers were graduates of Yale." If, then, we include in our 
 educational schemes the lowlier born, our plans of study should, as 
 far as practicable, be accommodated to the exigencies of their misfor- 
 tune. To the child of poverty and ignorance is it not cruelly dis- 
 couraging to say: "If you hear poor English and read poor English, 
 you will pretty surely speak poor English and write poor English-?" 
 Shall we cover the indigent with a cloud of despair? When they 
 cry for bread shall we give them a stone? While they are groping 
 for light shall we tantalize them with a treacherous mirage f 
 
 It is true, as of the case in hand, that we do not commonly speak 
 and write our mother-tongue with grace and fitness unless well cra- 
 dled ; and yet, not reckoning geniuses, as Bunyan and Shakespeare, 
 are not the ranks of scholarly men, of statesmen, and even the coteries 
 of the cultured, often recruited and invigorated from the lower classes 
 of our citizens? Is there not in all free governments an evolution 
 going on which carries hope to the humblest? Our liberalizing insti- 
 tutions encourage the thought among philanthropists that the school- 
 house and chapel, under wise management, are capable ot largely 
 redeeming many from the disabilities of their birth and breeding. 
 
 A censor of speech, Mr. White finds employment from necessity as 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 5 
 
 well as from inclination. For there are deficiencies and fullnesses, - 
 over-refinements and coarsenesses, in our conversations, our text-books 
 and our literature; and to the abatement of these he addresses himself 
 with spirit and acuteness, not always with discretion and discrimina- 
 tion. Among other things of more or less consequence he discounts 
 the value of marks of quantity, accent and the like, used in our spell- 
 ing books and dictionaries to indicate pronunciation. Well, they are 
 not unfailing indices to any, and, of course, are not indispensable to 
 one who learns his mother-tongue from an educated mother. We 
 suppose that no one claims that thpy are more than auxiliary to right 
 pronunciation. But with competent teachers they go far to supple- 
 ment the lack of home training. The common school, indeed, is the 
 foster-mother of the children of the poor; and on this delegated first 
 work of instruction their possible elevation depends. Many do 
 become proficient in their vernacular by these and other adventitious 
 aids, and some who have no occasion to plead want of environment or 
 of opportunity are glad to consult these sign-boards for the preven- 
 tion of unscholarly digressions. Teachers generally agree with our 
 critic that the difficulty of ''learning to spell" is unduly magnified, 
 and that the difficulty is compensated by the discipline. A boy of 
 "sprag memory," as Parson Evans phrases it, will master the spell- 
 ing book at least by the time he is readv for more thoughtful study. 
 To the "hard" words, wherein the discipline is more thorough, his 
 memory, as lichens to the rougher bark, clings but the closer. Words 
 from foreign languages are more rarely misspelled than Saxon ones; 
 and of the Saxon, those of peculiar structure and sound are longest 
 remembered. The " ough " class, nobody forgets. Some dissent, 
 however, may arise to the virtual restriction of learning to spell to 
 the single sense of hearing. Letters may not indicate the sound of 
 words accurately; they were not intended so to do; they are only 
 helpers. But it might be well to consider how long a language could 
 be kept uniform without visual helps. . For confirmation of this ten- 
 dency to dissonance an acquaintance with any illiterate population is 
 sufficient. Language without literature becomes confusingly dialectic. 
 The method of teaching to spell without the names of the letters does 
 not conflict with the fact that the letters are still suggestive of the 
 sounds. The single sense of hearing is insufficient for the acquisition 
 of pure speech. Its untrustworthiness in part causes phonetic decav 
 to proceed, notwithstanding the prevalence of " the art preservative of 
 all arts." Were audition perfect, vocalization would become more 
 articulate; and once taking in clearly the form of a word, it would be 
 correctly stereotyped in the memory and purely syllabled by the tongue. 
 Every precaution, therefore, that tends to save us from the errors of 
 defective hearing should be taken by the teacher, and encouraged by 
 the formers of school-opinion. The ear must be saved from false 
 reports by the vigilance of the eye ; and to further this co-operation 
 the teacher requires the pupil to reproduce the signs and characters 
 
6 
 
 A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 on the black-board. It is observed that, in many words, illiterate 
 adults do not distinguish the sound of the singular termination from 
 the plural, even when the formation is simple and regular; but when 
 taught to spell, the distinction is readily uttered. These facts being 
 assumed, it may not be too radical an induction to suppose that purer 
 English might be spoken by one without special social advantages, 
 but regularly taught, than by one not thus taught, but who, for some 
 reason, has come in contact with good company. 
 
 We heartily concur in our author's opinion of phonetic spelling. 
 His treatment is able and conclusive, and leaves, we think, no room 
 for a rejoinder by its advocates. In the chapters on this topic he 
 manifests a power nowhere else put forth — doubtless because it was 
 not elsewhere called for. Grappling with Ellis and Miilier, however, 
 he is on his muscle, on the principle that " it more excites to arouse 
 a lion than to start a hare." He makes the whole movement farcical 
 and its promoters absurd. 
 
 Phonetic reformers contend that there is no need for the spelling of 
 one's written language, agreeing as Mr. White suggests, with the 
 philosophy of Dogberry, that " to be a well-favored man is the gift 
 of God, but reading and writing" (and, of course, spelling,) "come by 
 nature;" that all that is necessary to make phonetic writing practica- 
 ble is the provision of a letter for each sound, and these provided, 
 nothing further is to be done but to order the adoption of the alpha- 
 bet. Replying facetiously but none the less tellingly to these falla- 
 cies, Mr. White takes up the arguments of the reformers as to waste 
 of time and money by the present system, showing that the old is as 
 easily learned as any new system of spelling, and that the loss by the 
 change, which is one of money and literature, would be great — the 
 loss of literature to the coming generations irreparable. Narrowing 
 the issue, he examines with care the systems of Ellis and Pitman, and 
 electing Miiller's as the strongest arguments in favor of change, he 
 replies, in substance, that reforms can be conducted by slow processes 
 only, that the alphabets proposed do not harmonize, that phonologists 
 themselves are in discord as to the sounds they would represent; that 
 even in the sound of as simple and oft- spoken words as " man " and 
 "God," there is no consonance of opinion, and extorts the confession 
 from one of the ablest advocates of reform that the revision of any 
 alphabet agreed upon would be constantly in order. Nevertheless, 
 the reformers are not suppressed. From the time of the Emperor 
 Claudius, who was a phonetic reformer, to this day, some one at inter- 
 vals appears to repeat the experiment. Like efforts to establish per- 
 petual motion, new schemes of phonetic spelling are persistently 
 brought forward. William Taylor, Bishop of Africa, for the sup- 
 posed speedier furtherance of his missionary campaign, carries with 
 him the New Testament in phonetic characters. Parts of the Bible 
 have been before put in Pitman's alphabet, for the natives of Nova 
 Scotia. What greater success Taylor may have in Christianizing 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 7 
 
 the African, through this text, cannot be known till tried ; but if a 
 knowledge of English be precedent to conversion, we should fear dis- 
 appointment. Unless the African is to be limited in his reading to 
 the New Testament, it would seem better to adhere to the old spell- 
 ing. But Taylor is given to novel, as well as to noble, enterprises. 
 
 If it be worth while to keep up a connected history of language, 
 and, for its own sake, and for its disclosures of past civilizations, it is 
 then, that orthography, conforming most nearly to etymology, remind- 
 ing us of an earlier significance and association of words, should be 
 the one to commend and preserve. Nor would such a system appre- 
 ciably add to the labor of the learner. 
 
 We cannot, altogether, agree with our author in his "desultory 
 denunciation of dictionaries." To his denunciation there is a formi- 
 dable counter-judgment, in the fact that dictionaries are the resort and 
 support of all classes of men. But there are intrinsic reasons for 
 dissent. 
 
 If, as claimed, Johnson's Dictionary did not enlarge the resources 
 of our language, it realized the resources, which is a virtual enlarge- 
 ment. It was not his province to coin words, and he seldom essayed 
 the mintage ; but he did correct and define, as best he could, the ver- 
 bal coinage of English writers down to his day, and thereby disclosed, 
 to each living writer and speaker, the opulence of his contemporaries. 
 By wider search for material, and more consistent etymologies, 
 improvement is apparent in the works of subsequent compilers. 
 Though, in one place, Mr. White insists that changes in language 
 are so constant and so subtle, " that a dictionary can hardly be 
 launched upon the public before it becomes to be historical, a record 
 of obsolescent sounds and meanings;" yet, elsewhere, he says, that 
 the language of Shakespeare is potentially the same as ours of to-day. 
 This being true, a dictionary then issued would be only less valuable 
 than the poet's personal legacy. 
 
 Furthermore, the dictionary is builded like a national cathedral — 
 one presiding genius, an Angelo or a Wrenn, gives constructive 
 embodiment to the Christian ideal of his time ; but, then, others — 
 artists, artisans and workers — contribute of their skill and toil to the 
 completion of the architectural design. Besides their own gather- 
 ings, and the stores of their predecessors, lexicographers impress 
 experts of all schools of learning and science and art ; so that, what- 
 ever defects the resultant accumulation may manifest, it is a work 
 more nearly perfect than could be produced on any other feasible 
 basis. The introduction of the technical terms is not objectionable, 
 for these are of interest to others, as well as to specialists. The mere 
 vocabulary thus compiled, is a work of comprehensive diligence — a 
 collection of facts, of facts as a column of figures is a record of num- 
 bers, and the question, if any be asked, is: What is left out? Mr. 
 White complains not of incompleteness. As to the names of the 
 words, there is as little uncertainty as about the names of the digits. 
 
8 
 
 A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 A few strokes of the pen discriminates dollars and cents, pounds and 
 shillings, and a touch or two of the pen scales the accent and vowel 
 power of words. The " content," too, of words, is as easily deter- 
 mined as the value of a dollar or a pound — what it passes for, its mar- 
 ket value, no more, no less. The thought- value of a word varies 
 less than the buying powers of a coin, or a bill of exchange. A word 
 may not vary in sound, form or sense, in a century ; but should 
 changes occur in decades or in shorter periods, lexicography keeps 
 pace with the trend, and notes every condition of word-life — the liv- 
 ing, the lingering and the dying. Dictionaries are the consolidated 
 ballots of free intelligence, the plebiscites of literary, scientific and 
 commercial opinion. The exponents of conservatism, they are also 
 the water-marks of fluctuations. They are not simply the reposito- 
 ries of verbal stores for men of leisure and learning, but also for the 
 homelier wants of working men; and lexicographers are not so much 
 autocrats of speech, as the tribunes of popular usage. 
 
 The prominence of scientific studies in the schools, and the preva- 
 lence of scientific thought in the periodic and other publications of 
 the day, and the consequent increasing utilization of scientific knowl- 
 edge in commercial, mechanical and other industries, suggests the 
 possible neglect of the humanities and cognate studies; that first 
 Greek and Latin, and next that German, French and English would 
 be lightly regarded, specially as bound up with the older group of 
 languages. The Germans, as is their wont, have settled the matter 
 for themselves, by experiment. Thirty years ago they instituted a 
 competition between the classical course, including the physical sci- 
 ences, and the scientific course excluding the ancient languages ; and 
 the result determines them on the retention of the classical course. 
 The experiment was wisely enterprised, and the conclusion readied 
 is not surprising. But, lest this statement be misleading, it should 
 be said that the conclusion does not adequately express the influence 
 exerted by revived scientific study. The rank and file of educators 
 did not look for any abrupt thrusting out of the classics; but they 
 did look for a change in the character of the study given them ; 
 and the change anticipated has begun, and will continue. In our 
 colleges and universities the classics are retained and taught, but with 
 reference to the changed conditions, brought about by the activity in 
 physical inquiry. An era of scientific investigation calls for scientific 
 methods, and these, as best they may, are to be applied to linguistics, 
 as well as to studies in physics. The student of English is not insen- 
 sible to the spirit of the times. With quickened historic interest, he 
 is going to the nearer sources of its life — the Saxon, the Latin and 
 the Romanic tongues — and when girded for the pilgrimage, extends 
 his search to the remotest fountain, the Sanskrit. The science of 
 language is based on the data of grammars, and the philosophy of 
 grammar. And, while some of the members of the Aryan family 
 require grammars fuller in forms and flexions than the English, this 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGIXG. 
 
 9 
 
 is no sufficient reason for excluding its grammar from our courses of 
 study. If for no other purpose, it might be retained to show its kin- 
 ship to the other members of the family, and how, albeit the young- 
 est, it is nevertheless the freest in construction ; and how, forsooth, 
 it has grown obedient to the calls of commerce, and, at the same time, 
 remains plastic for the more varied and trying offices of literature. 
 
 Were it true to the extreme of Mr. White's opinion that, the Eng- 
 lish is a grammarless tongue, it yet might not be a waste of time, 
 as it certainly has not in his case, to ascertain as nearly as possible in 
 what the exemption from forms consists. Or if perchance some 
 reminders of a former inflection survive, the grammarian might be 
 granted the professional pleasure of explaining the survival. Ichthy- 
 ologists, we believe, are not censured for showing germs of eves in 
 sightless fish. The English language, like English political institu- 
 tions, has had its conflicts and its compromises ; and naturally enough 
 the most notable of these mutations occurred during the same epochs. 
 Succeeding the Xorman Conquest, from the eleventh to the thirteenth 
 century, with varying fortune, war for supremacy was waged between 
 the Saxon and Xorman tongues. The language was for a time 
 bilingual. A single line from Robert of Gloucester's " Battle of 
 Hastings" will illustrate — 
 
 6 A thousend and sixe and sixtie, this bataile was ido.' 
 
 Trevisa fixes on the plague of 1349 as the "French much used 
 tofore the grete deth, but sith it is some dele chaunged." And so at 
 other memorable periods, changes came about to the struggling Saxon 
 and his sturdy tongue. 
 
 Xow half appeared 
 The tawny lion, straggling to get free 
 His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 
 And rampant shakes his brinded mane. 
 
 At such periods, with more or less resoluteness, the language, as if 
 weary of constraint, shook off some of its encumbering forms. But 
 neither did the government grow weaker, nor the language less flex- 
 ible. The less of grammar required, the stronger and more direct 
 the language ; but no written language can long live without a gram- 
 mar ; for, that it may be self-perpetuating it must be formal. For 
 obvious reasons the spoken and the written language differ. If men 
 never wrote, rules and forms of speech might be dispensed with ; for 
 our meaning, though not lucidly expressed, might by tone and ges- 
 ture be correctly communicated. As long, however, as an exact 
 transcript of thought in characters is desirable, so long must the 
 writer be careful in the construction of his sentences. If limited to 
 inflections and declensions, grammar offers little to engage the stu- 
 dent. Undoubtedly, the logic is more important than the forms of 
 grammar, but that is but tantamount to saying that the thought is 
 nobler than the language that conveys it — the rider than his chariot. 
 
10 
 
 A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 Logic is rightly ordered thought, but it is also primarily rightly 
 ordered words. It concatenates ideas, but it also connects words. As 
 a matter of fact, could there be any sentence-making on a grammati- 
 cal basis without the ideas of " subject" and "predicate?" and yet 
 these same ideas are the framework, if not the body of logic. Really, 
 so far as our knowledge of schools and teaching extends, logical gram- 
 mar is that to which most attention is given, because most important. 
 Rut we should bear in mind it is not first learned. All first strug- 
 gles for knowledge are easily forgotten, and those put forth for the 
 mastery of our mother tongue form no exception to the general 
 facility. The teacher oftenest reminded of these efforts, best knows 
 that, without the elementary drill in the confessedly meager forms of 
 our grammar, and without repeated analysis and synthesis of sen- 
 tences, no creditable scientific knowledge of speech is attainable. 
 
 Our author's strictures on the study of grammar are not all unde- 
 serving, nor li is ridicule of grammarians without instances illustra- 
 tive; but he himself is not unassailable. He appears as dogmatic as 
 the grammarians of whom he complains. Grammarians disagree 
 among themselves, but Mr. White differs with them all and denounces 
 them all. Rut he is not always consistent in his denunciation, nor 
 philosophic in his deliverances. At times he manifests deficiency in 
 the judicial faculty. Not always guarded in his own statements of 
 opinion or principle, of others he is ever exacting. After time and 
 again proclaiming the English a grammarless tongue, that it is " dead," 
 he yet devotes a goodly portion of two volumes to the discussion of 
 matters that by his own restricted definition are grammatical. Like 
 Falstaff, he wounds anew his dead Percy, and lugs him around as a 
 trophy of his prowess. Meanwhile, too, he continues his disputa- 
 tions as though the battle of grammar was still raging. With an 
 ingenuity worthy of a cause more vital, he rings the changes on "is 
 being done'' with the reiterative refrain of, "Punch, punch, punch 
 with care." Presumably, then, some forms of grammar have vitality 
 enough to furnish toying for their sworn enemy. Thirty-five years 
 ago, when a youth, we read a discussion of this same form of words 
 in our village newspaper, and the same conclusion w T as reached by 
 the editor as by Mr. White; that it is an unreasonable form; but it 
 was not insisted as bv him that the verb "to be" means "to exist" 
 and nothing else. Nor if there be any authorities do they coincide 
 with him. Generally the masters teach that "to be" is a substantive 
 verb, and as such it is the equivalent of "to exist;" though they 
 would deny that the verbs could be used interchangeably. Rut they 
 further teach that as a symbol verb " to be" faintly, if at all, sug- 
 gests the idea of existence. This fading of significance comes about 
 through enclyticism as well as symbolism. As illustrative of waning 
 through symbolism — the w r ord "now" in the clause, " Now I know 
 in part," loses its presenti veness in the succeeding verse in the clause, 
 "And now abideth faith, hope, charity." In the latter case the nor- 
 
A FOKTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 11 
 
 mal significance has escaped, and the word becomes a mere illative, 
 with no reference to present times. As corroborative the Greek text 
 in one instance is arti, in the other nuni de. In the sublime words, 
 " Before Abraham was, I am," the verb " am " has a personal ness and 
 presentiveness that evaporates in current colloquial phrases, where 
 leaning on a pronoun, or, we may say, sharing its individuality with 
 a pronoun and a verb, it is depleted in meaning; as in such expres- 
 sions as "I'm going," " it's done." But whether the point be well 
 taken or not, we submit that Mr. White, in showing the unreason- 
 ableness of such forms of words as, "is being done," " is being built," 
 and the like, is teaching grammar, and teaching it after the manner 
 of thousands, with the exception that he teaches unprofessionally and 
 therefore under the ardor of a fresh discovery. In his labor of love 
 he lias gone so far as to formulate a conjugation for which our Georgia 
 backwoodsmen might return him a vote of thanks — 
 
 INDICATIVE MOOD. 
 
 PRESENT AND IMPERFECT TENSE. 
 
 Singular. Plural. 
 
 1. I done 1. We uns done. 
 
 2. Yer done. 2. You uns done. 
 
 3. He done. 3. They uns done. 
 
 Future- Perfect. 
 
 J. I gwine gone done. 1. We uns gwine gone done. 
 
 2. Yer gwine gone done. 2. You uns gwine gone done. 
 
 3. He gwine gone done. 3. They uns gwine gone done. 
 
 He would have us distinguish grammar and philology, but in the 
 fierceness of his shifting onsets, he forgets his own announced differ- 
 entiation. Drawing the line between the two is no easy task, for they 
 now and then become confluent. Just where in the study of language 
 they meet is hard to put in words, but they do meet, and perplexingly 
 enough they mingle. Their duty is similiar: both take account of 
 speech, the one restrictively, the other historically. Grammar deduces 
 its principles from accredited models, recognized master-pieces. Once 
 itself systematized, it assumes authority and speaks oracularly — 
 becomes, it may be, a moralist rebuking the Keltic sin of confounding 
 " will " and "shall," and " would " and "should;" or a ritualist, cour- 
 teously, but with churchly consequence, insisting on the reverent 
 crossing of our tts. Grammar, too, grows aristocratic, admitting to 
 her charmed circle no low-born word, no unconventional phraseology. 
 Such are her vanities. Philology is not so. Including in its scope 
 the technics of grammar, it passes like a real lady from calisthenic 
 training to an unconscious graceful carriage. So sensible is she, how- 
 ever, that the uneasy gait of those yet in pupilage offends her not. 
 
12 
 
 Dismissing cavils of prudery, she looks at language as it is. Once 
 established, grammar, like art, becomes conservative, settling practice 
 at the sacrifice even of versatility and productiveness. Not until after 
 Lessing had deduced from the masters in sculpture painting and 
 poetry, his theory of aesthetics, did the Laocoon become an authority. 
 Literature would after a time cease to energize in fresh expression 
 were not the restraints of form in some sort relaxed by the flexibilitv 
 that comes of freedom. The acme of rule is found in the dead-lock 
 of the Middle Ages, when monks set the bones of their skeleton bar- 
 bara, eelarent, etc., as profitlessly as they counted their beads. Art 
 finds its renewal and increase of beauty and strength in the ceaseless 
 combinations which the mind discovers in its freer moods, and in its 
 communings with the outer world. The same sun shines to-day as 
 lighted tile else darkened universe when God said, " Let there be 
 light, and there was light ;" but the intervening heavens, and the 
 veering clouds, and the recipient earth so modify it that the light has 
 not disclosed the same scene a single hour since the creation ; the 
 gliding year and the sweet return of the seasons lend their influence 
 to render art Protean and progressive. For though for a while the 
 creative hand of art may have been fettered by the canons of the 
 schools, the undying but variant charms of nature forbid the unbro- 
 ken slumber of taste or the paralysis of genius. And thus it is in all 
 learning and in all culture; specially so in the relation of philology 
 and grammar. Left to itself, grammar would fossilize language. 
 But it is not thus left. A veritable communist, philology makes 
 requisition on the popular favorites and audaciously presents them for 
 enrollment. Nor indeed does damage of necessity accrue to literature 
 by the notices bestowed on the idioms of the unlettered by philology. 
 A loss of prestige may be set off by a gain of power. The gulf stream 
 of philology may float in its current the wreck of many a word, the 
 soil of many an impurity of speech; but these are " unconsidered 
 trifles," slight defilements, when we remember that in its flow it tem- 
 pers the great body and vitalizes the volume of the ocean of letters. 
 
 But if we descry the drift of his teachings, Mr. White would unset- 
 tle our schools and school systems without the hinted hope of a better 
 adjustment. He would render the spirit of education uniformly 
 aggressive; and in his rebellion against the supposed tyranny of the 
 rules of English, he would dynamite the whole parliament of gram- 
 marians, and the very tower of our English armory. But he hardly 
 means all he says, or as much as he says. He speaks strongly. Anx- 
 ious to impress his views, he probibly strains them, and in their 
 defense argues ex abundantia. There is cause to revise our methods 
 of teaching and our text-books; reform, however, is called for, not 
 revolution. Grammar, we think, is too much studied in the early, 
 too little in the later school days. Ely's crime was ignorance of child- 
 capacity. This ignorance still befogs many a teacher and many a 
 parent. Blunders thus arising are damaging. Besides the teacher 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 13 
 
 mistakingly relies too much on the home training of the pupil. Igno- 
 ring elementary work, the basis of all higher knowledge, Mr. White, 
 inadvertently, no doubt, fosters this error among teachers. Facility 
 in speaking English, it should be remembered, does not include 
 ability in writing it. Ladies sometimes converse charmingly, but 
 write disenchantingly. Students, we may add, who easily translate 
 from a foreign to their native tongue, from empirical knowledge fail 
 in reversing the process. But more than all, it is to be regretted that 
 Mr. White overlooks the danger to a large class of well-meaning, but 
 scantily equipped, teachers, who rniss the safer meaning between his 
 lines, and unwisely appropriate 'his conspicuous and radical specula- 
 tions. 
 
 Though in his comparison of " British English" and " American 
 English" in "Words and Their Uses," Mr. White makes a pertinent 
 defense of the American, yet in his U H Malady in England," pub- 
 lished in the January "Atlantic," he says: "That which is accord- 
 ing to the recognized standard of speech in England is English." 
 And as we understand him, he means it is so par excellence. We had 
 heartily gone with him in the former discussion and regret that this 
 modification of judgment leads to a partial divergence. The discrep- 
 ancy in his opinions is hardly met by the presumption that in the one 
 case he may be considering spoken, and in the other written language. 
 For do not the written and spoken interact? And though somewhat 
 differing, if the one form of use decline in purity, will not the other 
 be affected ? Further: if " reason and taste" together constitute the 
 arbitrament .of written, why not of spoken language? If "custom, 
 the custom of the best society, is the absolute law as to pronunciation, 
 and in most respects and within certain limits the only law of lan- 
 guage," as he says in the number of the " Atlantic" mentioned, why 
 elsewhere does he set up another standard ? 
 
 Now as to the relative worth of our speech as given forth by Eng- 
 lishmen or Americans, we would say that, veneration for ancestors is 
 inborn and ennobling, but it is not incompatible with self-assertion 
 in the descendant. They are complemental qualities. The virtues 
 of those who make the homestead a blessing are transmissible. A 
 daughter may be as attractive and sweet of voice as her mother, and 
 if a new home should at any time be established, it would in most 
 respects be a reproduction of the old one. Proudly tracing the prin- 
 ciples of their constitution, as they do the line of their ancestry to 
 Great Britain, Americans ever English-speaking have had no cause 
 to decline from the purity of their mother-tongue as it came from 
 the mother-country ; nor is there reason to suppose that the changes 
 incident to all language life, should be more marked here than in 
 England. But were they more rapid and violent, yet if we have 
 become an independent nation, and grown to greatness in a century — 
 must the independence be limited to national life? But we have not 
 had in the matter of speech even the appearance of unfilialness. While 
 
14 
 
 A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 building up a literature among ourselves with no purpose to make it 
 American, we have not regarded the literature of England as that of 
 a foreign country — it belongs to both. The prepossessions were all 
 in its favor, and this alone would keep ours Anglian. The law of 
 primogeniture making culture as well as property hereditary is a fac- 
 tor which might differentiate our speech-habits from theirs; but at 
 best this law operates directly and indirectly to conserve the higest 
 culture for a few only ; whereas in the United States, through the 
 democracy of our institutions, a large class attains to the best educa- 
 tion our schools afford. The body of American scholars thus trained, 
 from the lack of wealth and the absence of rank, may fail of the ele- 
 gancies of society English, but they are not debarred by want of 
 social eminence from becoming conversant with our vernacular as 
 needed in philosophy and literature. More and more as the common 
 school system extends and improves, and the high schools in our towns 
 and cities multiply, shall there be sent forward to our colleges and 
 professional schools, students who in the end will make common the 
 acquirements which now may be partial. And if the election is to be 
 made between the authority of the few who are conventionally above 
 the classes where compelled activity imparts vigor, and the economies 
 of life sharpen the faculties, and the open field invites emulation, rea- 
 son if not taste would prefer the judgment of the instructed man v. 
 But apart from any considerations presented adverse to the dictum of 
 Mr. White, it may be further urged this British bias clashes with the 
 repeated declaration that there is no authority in the consensus of any 
 class. But were there marked differences,, which is not the case, rea- 
 son, other things equal, would side with home usage. Verily, how- 
 ever, what remains in English literature distinctively American or 
 British cannot long resist the homogeneous tendency of our increasing 
 intercommunion. 
 
 The objections to what Mr. White has written on grammar and 
 kindred topics, are by no means comparable, in number and impor- 
 tance, to the number and excellence of his stirring comments and 
 criticisms. The objections lie rather against the want of accord in 
 his teachings, than to any grave specific errors. Evidently he has 
 been a wide reader in these studies; he has been to "a feast of Eng- 
 lish, and has brought away more than scraps of knowledge." It 
 would be well, however, should he so formulate his teachings that 
 they would not conflict in details, nor deviate from his standard of 
 " reason and taste." The number of illustrations might be so classi- 
 fied, that the student would look to the danger of violating general 
 principles of speech, rather than of blundering in the use of unreasona- 
 ble or distasteful forms of words. As now presented, the student, if 
 inexperienced, might be inclined to infer that the abuses noted are all 
 that are to be met with, and fancy himself exempt from errors, when 
 escaping those pointed out. 
 
 Mr. White sometimes, as we have intimated, elevates one part of 
 
A FORTUNATE FLOGGING. 
 
 15 
 
 his standard at the expense of the other. As an instance of exalting 
 reason above its sister taste, and as a piece of inimitable special plead- 
 ing, we invite attention to his defence of Lowell in the coinage and 
 poetic (?) use of the double back-action word, " undispri vacied " " Dis- 
 privacied" he says, " is as unknown to dictionaries as privacied or 
 widisprivaeied ; but its meaning — having had privacy taken away — 
 is dear, and its formation as normal as that of " disprised or dis- 
 gusted." Then comes the double prefix in the " Cathedral :" 
 
 u Play with his child, make love, and shriek his mind, 
 By throngs of strangers undisprivaded." 
 
 It may be asked, as wi here merely cancels dis, to which it is pre- 
 fixed, how does undisprivaded. differ from privacied, and what neces- 
 sity justifies the use of the former? To this the reply is, that 
 although the ua merely cancels the dis, there is in disprivaeied a sug- 
 gestion of an active and unpleasant taking away of privacy, (and that 
 therefore an undisprivaded man is one w ho has escaped that injury 
 from those who are "willing to inflict it ) while in privacied there is no 
 such implication. All this comes at once by intuition to men who 
 are masterful in language, or ready and true in its apprehension." 
 Ah, that mythical " meeting of forefathers two hundred and thirty or 
 forty years ago in Cambridge, where Gore Hall now stands." must 
 have something to do with the preparation of this morceau. Well, to 
 say the least, it is an "' nndislowellizing " defence. 
 
 For an "unconscious" writer, Mr. White has unusual skill in 
 placing his subject and. predicates. If a single sentence be analyzed, 
 one can rarely mistake his meaning. It is only when he passes to 
 fresh but kindred themes that he loses sight of his antecedents. He 
 has all the present nesti of the disputant though not all the consistency 
 of the philosopher. In view of his valuable services the public should 
 be grateful, and in consideration of his amendment Ely .should rest 
 in peace. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Form 335— <25M — 7-35 — B-M.Co.