Corruption Of Language

So inany persons without anything doserving tho namo of education have beoomu writors by profession, that writton language may almost bc said to be prinoiI -.i'iy wielden by persons ignorant of the proper uso of the instrument, and who ttre spoiling it moro and moro for those i who onderstand it. Vulgarismo, which j oreep in nobody knowa how, are daily dein-iving the English languapce of valuable modes of sxpreasing thought. To take a present instan ce : The verb tra usdre forniüily conveyed very expressively its correct moaning, viz., to hecomê faunen üaoiigh unnoticcd channels - to exliale, as it were, ' into publicity through invisible pores, liko a vapor or gas disengaging itsilf. But of lato a practico has oommenoed of employing tliis word for the sake of íinery, as a more synonym to happen ; "tho events which havo trOMpired in tlic Crimea," moaning tlio incidents oí' tho war. This vilo specimen of bad English is alroady seen by tho dispatches oí' noblcmcn and viceroys ; and the time is apparently not far distant whon nobody will understand tho word if used in its proper sonso. It is a great error to think that those corruptions of language do no harm. Those who are struggling with tho diih'culty (and who know by expericnco how great it already is) of expressing one's Belf cloarly with precisión, find their resources oontinually narrowád by illiterato Wliten who soize and twist from its purpose sbme fonn of speech onco Berrea to convoy briefly and conrpactly an unambiguous meaning. It would hardly be bi-lirvüd how often a writer.is oompelled to a oiroumlocution by the singlo vulgarism, introduced within the last few yeurs, of ueing the word alone as an advurb, only not boing fino onough for the rhotoric of ambitious ignoranoe. A man will eay, " to which I am not alono bound by honor but also by law," unawuro that what he has uuintentionally said is, that he is not alone bound, sonio othor porson buing bound with him. Formerly, if any ono said, " I am not alono responsible for this," ho was understood to mean (what alono his words mean in correct Qnglish) thiit ho is not the solo porson responsible ; but if he now usod such an expression the reader would bo confusod betwoen that and two other meauings - that ho is not only respontóble but something moro ; or that ho is rosponsible not only for thix but for somothing bosides. The time is coming whon Tennyson's CEnone could not say " I will not dio alono," lest she should bo supposod to mean that sho would not only 'die but do something clso. The blunder of writing prel cate forprcdiet has booorac so widely difïused tbat it bids fair to render 0110 of the uost nseful in the scientific vooabulary of logic uniiitclligible. Tho mathernatioal and logioa] term to elimínate is undergoin ;i similar destruction. All who a; quainted with either tlio proper uso of tho word or with its etymology, know that to oliminato a thing is to thrust it out ; but to those wlio kuow nothing about it, except that it is a fine-looking phrase, use it in a seiise precisoly tho revt is; - to denote, not turning anything out, but bringing it in. Thoy talk of ■ soino truth, or othor uscful