The Growth Of Language

No comimttee eau teil whether a word is a good word or a bad word, or whetbi.r it is wanted er not. Old fashioned peopïe v.ill ahvays teil you that a new word is not wautecl cod that there are plenty of ex t equivalente for it already in the langnage. Thia seerus conclusivo, jet experience ofteu provea that they were wrciifi and that there was a sbade of tneaning which they did not perceive, but which was neverthelesa pressiug eagerly for expression. Thousands of words which we now consider absolutely essential to the language were, when they were first introduced, described as quite unnecessary aud the mere surplusage of pedantry or affectation. Let any one turn to that most humorous of Elizabethan playa, "The Poetaster, " and read the scène in which the poet (Marston is the subject of the atire) ia given an ematio and made to bring up all the newfangled worda which ho has nsed in his works. The eharacter who ia watching the resulta keeps on calling out that such and such a monstrosity "has newly come up. " This was thought a brilliant piece of aatire at the time, and yet now half the condemned words are admitted by all readers and writers. In truth, there can be no censorship in literature. Theonly possible plan is to give every word its chance and allow the flttest to survive. It was in this sense that Dryden declared that he proposed new words, and if the public approved "the bill passed" and the wor,d became law. Instead of a writer being on the lookout to throttle and destroy any and every new word or phrase that may be suggested, it ought to be his business toeucourago all true and fitting developments of his nativo tongue. Dryden, in the admirable passage from which we have quoted already, uses the memorablo phraso, "I tradeboth with the living and the dead for the enrichment of onr tongue. "-