paper, the price never above a fhilling, and taken off "wholly by common tradefmen or country pedlars; "but now they appear in all fizes and fhapes, and in all places: They are handed about from lapfulls in every Coffee-houfe to perfors of Quality; are fhewn "in Westminster-hall and the Court of Requests. You may fee them gilt, and in royal paper of five or fix "hundred pages, and rated accordingly. I would en"gage to furnish you with a catalogue of English books, "published within the compafs of feven years paft, * which at the first hand would coft you a hundred "pounds, wherein you fall not be able to find ten lines together of common Grammar or common * Senfe.

"Thefe two evils, ignorance, and want of tafte, "have produced a third; I mean the continual corrup"tion of our English Tongue, which, without fome "timely remedy, will fuffer more by the falfe refine "ments of twenty years paft, than it hath been improved

in the foregoing hundred. And this is what I defign "chiefly to enlarge upon, leaving the former evils to your animadverfion.

"But instead of giving you a lift of the late refinements crept into our Language, I here fend you the 66 сору of a Letter I received, fome time ago, from a "moft accomplished perfon in this way of writing; up&S on which I fhall make fome remarks. It is in there 66 terms :"

I

SIR,

Cou'd n't get the things you fent for all about Town -I thot to ba come down myself, and then I'd "brôt 'um; but I ha'nt don't, and I believe I can't "do't, that's Pozz-Tom begins to gi'mfelf airs, be"caufe he's going with the Plenipo's "Tis faid thre "French King will bamboozle us agen, which caufes many "Speculations. The Jacks and others of that Kidney

are very uppif, and alert upon't, as you may fee by their Phizz's Will Hazard has got the Hipps, "having loft to the Tune of five hundr'd pound, tho' he underflands play very well, na Body better. He has

promis't me upon Rep, to leave off play; but you "know 'tis a weakness he's too apt to give into, tho' he "has as much wit as any man, no Body more. He has "lain incog ever fince The Mobb's very quiet with 66 us now I believe you thot I banter'd you in my I shan't leave town this

"laft, like a Country Put "month, &c."

This Letter is in every point an admirable pattern of the prefent polite way of writing; nor is it of lefs authority for being an Epistle: You may gather every flower in it, with a thousand more of equal fweetness, from the books, pamphlets, and fingle papers offered us every day in the Coffee-houfes: And these are the beauties introduced to fupply the want of wit, fenfe, hymour, and learning, which formerly were looked upon as qualifications for a Writer. If a man of wit, who died forty years ago, were to rife from the grave on purpofe, how would he be able to read this Letter? and after he had got through that difficulty, how would he be able to understand it? The first thing that strikes your eye, is the Breaks at the end of almost every fentence; of which I know not the ufe, only that it is a refinement, and very frequently practifed. Then you will obferve the abbreviations and elifions, by which confonants of most obdurate found are joined together, without one foftening vowel to intervene; and all this only to make one fyllable of two, directly contrary to the example of the Greeks and Romans, altogether of the Gothic ftrain, and a natural tendency towards relapfing into barbarity, which delights in monofyllables, and uniting of mute confonants, as it is obfervable in all the Northern languages. And this is fill more vifible in the next refinement, which confifts in pronouncing the first fyllable in a word that has many, and difmiffing the reft, fuch as " Phizz, Hipps, Mobb, Pozz, Rep," and many more, when we are already overloaded with monofyllables, which are the difgrace of our Language. Thus we cram one fyllable, and cut off the reft, as the owl fattened her mice after fhe had bit off their legs, to prevent them from running away; and if ours be the fame zeafon for maiming our words, it will certainly answer

the

the end; for I am fure no other nation will defire to borrow them. Some words are hitherto but fairly split, and therefore only in their way to perfection, as Incog, and Plenipo: But in a fhort time, it is to be hoped, they will be further docked to Inc. and Plen. This reflection has made me of late years very impatient for a peace, which I believe would fave the lives of many brave words, as well as men. The war has introduced abundance of pollyfyllables, which will never be able to live many more campaigns, "Speculations, Operations,

Preliminaries, Ambassadors, Pallifadoes, Communi❝cation, Circumvallation, Battallions," as numerous as they are, if they attack us too frequently in our Coffee-houses, we fhall certainly put them to flight, and -cut off the rear.

The third refinement, obfervable in the Letter I fend: you, confifts in the choice of certain words invented by fome pretty Fellows, fuch as "Banter, Bamboozle,, "Country Put, and Kidney," as it is there applied; fome of which are now ftruggling for the vogue, and others are in poffeffion of it. I have done my utmost for fome years paft, to ftop the progrefs of Mobb and Banter, but have been plainly borne down by numbers, and betrayed by thofe who promised to affift me.

In the last place, you are to take notice of certain./ choice phrafes fcattered through the Letter, some of them tolerable enough, until they were worn to rags by fervile imitators. You might eafily find them though they: were not in a different print, and therefore I need not disturb them.

Thefe are the falfe refinements in our ftile which you ought to correct: First, by argument and fair means: but if thofe fail, I think you are to make ufe of your au, thority as Cenfor, and by an annual Index Expurgatorius: expunge all words and phrafes that are offenfive to good fense, and condemn those barbarous mutilations of vowels and fyllables. In this laft point the ufual pretence is, that they fpell as they fpeak: A noble standard for Language! to depend upon the caprice of every Coxcomb, who, because words are the cloathing of our thoughts, cuts them out and fhapes them as he pleases, and changes. them oftener than his drefs. I believe all reafonable

people

159 people would be content that fuch refiners were more Iparing in their words, and liberal in their fyllables; And upon this head I should be glad you would bestow fome advice upon feveral young readers in our churches, who, coming up from the Univerfity full fraught with. admiration of our town politenefs, will needs correct the ftile of their Prayer-books. In reading the Abfolution, they are very careful to fay Pardons and Abfolves; and in the prayer for the Royal Family, it must be endue'um, enrich'um, profper'um, and bring'um. Then in their fermons they use all the modern terms of art, Sham, Banter, Mob, Bubble, Bully, Cutting, Shuffling, and Palming all which, and many more of the like ftamp, as I have heard them often in the pulpit, from fuch young fophifters, fo I have read them in fome of "thofe

fermons that have made moft noise of late." The defign, it feems, is to avoid the dreadful imputation of pedantry to fhew us, that they know the town, undertand men and manners, and have not been poring upon old unfashionable books in the Univerfity.

It is ma

I fhould be glad to fee you the inftrument of introducing into our ftile that fimplicity which is the heft and trueft ornament of moft things in life, which the politer ages always aimed at in their building and drefs, Simplex munditiis, as well as their productions of wit. nifelt that all new affected modes of fpeech, whether borrowed from the Court, the town, or the theatre, are the first perishing parts in any language; and, as I could prove by many hundred inftances, have been fo in ours. The writings of Hooker, who was a country Clergyman, and of Parfons the Jefuit, both in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, are in a file that, with very few allowances, would not offend any prefent reader, and are much more clear and intelligible than thofe of Sir Harry Wocton, Sir Robert Naunton, Ofborn, Daniel the hiftorian, and feveral others who writ later; but being men of the Court, and affecting the phrafes then in fafhion, they are often either not to be underflood, or appear perfectly ridiculous.

.

What remedies are to be applied to thefe evils, I have not room to confider, having, I fear, already taken up melt of your Paper. Befides, I think it is our office

only

only to represent abufes, and yours to redress them. .I

am with great refpect,

Sir,

Your, &c.

N° 231. Saturday, September 30, 1710.

OVID. Rem. Amor. ver. 91.

Principiis obfta

Prevent the growing evit

R. WYNN E.

TH

From my own Apartment, September 29.

HERE are very many ill habits that might with much eafe have been prevented, which, after we have indulged ourfelves in them, become incorrigible. We have a fort of proverbial expreffion, of "Taking a "woman down in her wedding fhoes," if you would. bring her to reafon. An early behaviour of this fort had a very remarkable good effect in a family, wherein I was feveral years an intimate acquaintance.

A Gentleman in Lincolnshire had four daughters, three of which were early married very happily; but the fourth, though no way inferior to any of her fifters, either in perfon or accomplishments, had from her infancy discovered fo imperious a temper, ufually called a High Spirit, that it continually made great uneafinefs in the family, became her known character in the neighbourhood, and deterred all her lovers from declaring themfelves. However, in procefs of time, a Gentleman of a plentiful fortune and long acquaintance, having obferved that quickness of fpirit to be her only fault, made his addreffes, and obtained her confent in due form. The lawyers finifhed the writings, in which, by the way, there was no pin-money, and they were married. After a decent time spent in the father's houfe, the bridegroom went to prepare his feat for her reception. During the whole