human purpose may be rendered vain, by the uncontrollable decrees of infinite, but unsearchable wisdom.

Young Gentlemen,-I can add nothing, but to assure you, that in departing from this seminary, you carry with you, in no ordinary degree, our confidence and our affection.

A DISSERTATION

ON THE QUESTION

"WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD USE OF A WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ?”*

As the assignment of this subject to me, resulted from the circumstance of my having expressed doubts concerning it, lit

This Dissertation was prepared for the convention of Colleges, and was read by a friend at the convention held May 31, 1820, after the death of the author. For a brief notice of this convention the reader is referred to the memoir prefixed to the first volume.

The fondness of President Appleton for philological inquiries is alluded to in the memoir of his life and character. The interest felt by him in the subject of this Dissertation appears to have arisen several years before it was written. The following letter addressed to the late learned and deeply lamented Benjamin Vaughan Esq. of Hallowell, on the same subject, will not be without interest in this connexion.

Brunswick, May 12, 1809.

SIR,-I would request the favor of your opinion as to the rule which ought to be adopted in the use of English words. It is evident, that the language is perpetually fluctuating. Some terms, used a century and a half ago by the best writers, would not now be used by writers of the same description. It seems to be a point, universally conceded, that new discoveries in physics render new terms necessary. Modern chemists have certainly gone on this principle. Nor do new discoveries constitute the only ground, as it would appear, on which new terms may be introduced. For as it must be allowed, that some words become obsolete, unless others come into use, the language would be gradually impoverished.

Must such words, as progress, (a verb), grade, lengthy, and derangement, be invariably marked, as unfit for use, while out-frown, knoed, kicksy-wicksy, and lovelily, pass under the authority of Dr. Johnson?

The making of new words does not appear to be confined to New England; though it is not denied, that we are culpably addicted to it.

tle, I flatter myself, will be expected or required, but to show the importance of the question together with the difficulty of a solution.

As language, or the expression of ideas by articulate sounds, is peculiar to man, and tends to his intellectual and moral improvement, whatever affects such expression, by rendering it more or less perfect, must have a necessary connexion with his prospects, whether of elevation or happiness. Next to the infelicity of having no language for the communication of our thoughts, is the evil of having one, which answers this end but imperfectly. That the design of language may be effected, it is necessary that he who hears, and he who speaks, should understand terms in the same sense, So far only as they do this, can the ideas of the one be conveyed to the other.

But language is designed not merely to enable individuals or communities of the same age to interchange their thoughts, but likewise to put it in the power of posterity to converse with their ancestors, and to receive, for their own improvement and direction, the experience and wisdom of former ages. Were an entire change suddenly produced in the language of a nation, the channel would be effectually stopped, through which this communication is made; and they would be as unable to profit by the knowledge acquired by their progenitors, as by that of their neighbors, whose dialect they had never learned. The more stability is attached to a language, the better, other things being equal, does it accomplish its intended purpose; and though a change so entire and sudden, as has been suggested,

Dr. Paley speaks of levitation, dentation, traceable, etc. Mr. Canning, in a late speech, mentions the insularity of Great Britain. Are these terms to be used, or not? If not, how many men of such respectability as Dr. Paley and Mr. Canning must use them, before they can be considered as fairly belonging to the English vocabulary?

The Latin language seems to have been mutable, as our own. Horace did not consider it as fixed, even in the Augustan age.

Multa renascentur, quae jam cecidere: cadentque, etc.

On this subject I feel some practical embarrassment from which your opinion would do much towards relieving me.

With great respect, I am Sir,

Your obedient and humble servant,

BENJAMIN VAUGHAN, ESQ.

VOL. II.

61

J. APPLETON.

is not to be apprehended, the adoption of new words and the ex-
clusion of old ones, is an alteration of the same nature, though
it be in degree, incomparably less. Some measure of this evil
is, however, inevitable. Judging from what is past, we are com-
pelled to conclude, that every language is doomed to share in
the mutability of human things. The language of Homer and
Hesiod is not the language of modern Greece. As to the
changes, which have been made in the Latin, in addition to
the fact, that many words in that language were obsolete before
the Augustan age, we have the express and abundant testimo-
ny of Polybius, Horace, and Quinctilian. The first of these
writers, speaking of the earliest treaty between the Romans
and Carthaginians, makes the following remark: "Believe me,
the Roman language has undergone so many changes since that
time, to the present, that even those who are most skilled in
the science of antiquities, cannot understand the words of that
treaty, but with the greatest difficulty." (Lib. III.) The interval
here referred too must have been less than four centuries.
"Our whole language," says Quinctilian, "has been in a manner,
changed."* Again, "language is ever in a fluctuating state, and
consequently some words must become obsolete: others must
come in vogue, of all which custom is the only infallible rule."
To the same purpose are the well known lines of Horace;

"As when the forest, with the bending year,
First sheds the leaves, which earliest appear,
So an old age of words maturely dies;
Others new born in youth and vigor rise.f

Nor did the poet presume, that language would in future be less mutable, than it had been in preceding ages.

"Shall words presume

To hold their honors and immortal bloom?

Many shall rise, that now forgotten lie,

Others in present credit soon shall die."

Nor can I forbear to repeat the melancholy, but profitable

L. VIII. c. 3.

* Quid multa? totus prope mutatus est sermo. Cum et verba intercidant invalescantque temporibus, ut quorum certissima sit regula in consuetudine. Lib. X. c. 2.

Ut sylvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos,
Prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit aetas;
Et juvenum ritu flerent modo nata, virentque.

Ars. Poet.

reflection, which did not escape the mind, even of a pagan moralist.

"Debemur morti nos, nostraque."

The English language, we know, has undergone great alterations, both in its native and adopted country. No person, at the present day, can read intelligibly the sermons of Latimer or the plays of Shakspeare, without a glossary. Swift quotes, with approbation, the following remark from Lord Oxford: "If it were not for the Bible, and common Prayer Book in the vulgar tongue, we should hardly be able to understand any thing, that was written among us an hundred years ago." In America we are not only changing the language from what it once was, but from what it now is in England. This was to have been expected; for it would be strange indeed, if the English language should alter in the same particulars and to the same extent, in countries so far removed from each other, and existing under circumstances so different, as England and America. We have, indeed, been complained of with loud reiteration for changing the language of our forefathers. That we are verily guilty in this matter, no candid person can hesitate to acknowledge. That the inhabitants of Great Britain are likewise abandoning many words once in good use, and substituting others in their place, can as little be questioned by any one, who reads their parliamentary speeches.

5

5

1

6

In English publications of a recent date, we find such words as the following: acquirability, concredit,' inusitation,' irresistance, endurable,2 modernism,3 encyclopedical, necesitarian1, religionism, unambiguity, argumentable,5 indignancy,5 jugglery, peculiarize, rotate, strues, as a transitive verb, trickery, unhingement,5 belord, companionized, inquiet, as a verb, disacknowledge, dramatize, facilitation, unrevealable, inertion, amiss,10 to be missing, degrade," as a nueter verb, stultifying,, unconversion," immitigable,12 indiscipline,12 luminously, 12 mohogic,13 belonging to the Mohawks, savanahamic,13 belonging to the savannahs, and virginic,13 belonging to Virginia.