Some dainty
people prefer pure air and correct language; but we now recognize that
purity is something more than an esthetic fad, that it is essential to our
health and well-being, and therefore it becomes a matter of universal
public interest, in language as well as in air.
There is a general belief that while bad air may be a positive evil
influence, incorrect use of language is at most no more than a negative
evil: that while it may be a good thing to be correct, no special harm
is involved in being incorrect. Let us look into this point.
While language as the medium of thought may be compared to air as
the medium of the sun's influence, in other respects it is like the
skin of the body; a scurvy skin shows bad blood within, and a scurvy
language shows inaccurate thought and a confused mind. And as a
disease once fixed on the skin reacts and poisons the blood in
turn as it has first been poisoned by the blood, so careless use of
language if indulged reacts on the mind to make it permanently and
increasingly careless, illogical, and inaccurate in its thinking.
The ordinary person will probably not believe this, because he conceives
of good use of language as an accomplishment to be learned from books,
a prim system of genteel manners to be put on when occasion demands,
a sort of superficial education in the correct thing, or, as the boys
would say, "the proper caper.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25