The Split Infinitive.

In a letter to the editor of the Loudon Chroniole Q. Bernard Shaw writes: I shonld have thonght, now that we have au acaderny of letters, that it might reseñe us from the gentlemen who occasionall? ■write to yon to explain how English ■honld be written. Some time ago yon let loose an nnhappy creatnre to whom Bome competent person had incantiouisly pointed out a oommon blunder in the use of "andwhich. " Not nnderstanding the matter, he began acensing every writer in whose works he oould disoover "and vfhioh" of writing bad English. With your permission, I have extinguisbed him, and he has not since been heard of. There was some excuse for that poor wretch, becanse there nnquestionableis a wrong way of using "and whioh, " but for the "split infinitivo" pest there is no exoust at all. There is nothing whatever to mislead him except his own nature. If any man w ere to object to a split indicative snch as "I greatly regret, " or a split Bubjnnctive snch as "I shonld greatly prefer, " or a split imperativo such as "come slowly ap, " what newspaper would waste an inch of spaoe on his foolish ignorance? And yetthis split infinitivo nonsense is taken qnite seriously by editors who are sufficiently good writers to repeatedly use it themselves. The infinitiva is a mood in whioh the position of the adverb cannot possibly produce ambiguity; consequently the order of the words is not a matter of grammar, bnt of style, of which the ear ie the only arbiter. The ear often demauds the split infinitiva and wiJl have it in spite of all the silly people who do not know what style means. When these infinite inseets are disposed of, yon will no doubt be attacked in due course by the even more irapudent impostors who, thongh they pronounce the word "color" so as to rhyme with "duller," and never hear it and never have beard it and never will hear it pronounced in any other way, from time to time pretend to be shocked when it is 6pelt without a "u. " I trust yon will ahvays insist on these nuisanoes definitely stating whether they pronounce it or "honor" or"neighbor" or "favor" or "behavior" so as to rhyme with "onr" or "poor," as the case may be, or whether they are merely bogus etymologists - century belated Johnsons. In ei.tber case you will be justified in recommending them to the care of their relatives and suppressing their babblings.