From The Saturday Review.

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felt sure that nobody had always spoken in
the grand style-that there must have been
a time when its most successful professors
talked plain English like other children. Our
puzzle was to know at what later stage of
life the great acquisition was made. We
think that we have at last solved the mys-
tery. We have found out that there exists,
through the length and breadth of the land,
a powerful agency for the diffusion of the
grand style, of which before we had but very
faint notions indeed.

nications which corrupt good language as
well as good manners. If a big meaningless
word comes out of the mouth either of a
really educated or of a wholly uneducated
man, we at once feel it to be out of place.
But in the speech and the writings of the
vast half-educated class this vile jargon is
what we naturally look for. A plowman
speaks plain English because he never
learned anything else. A scholar speaks
plain English because his good taste tells
him that it is the best language to speak.
But your commercial gentleman, your literary
gentleman, we fear we must sometimes add
your agricultural gentleman, will not stoop
to plain English, because he thinks it is un-
genteel. Now where did he learn to think
it is ungenteel? This is what has always
puzzled us, and now at last we think we have
found it out.

THE CRADLE OF FINE WRITING. We believe that we have, after much research, lighted upon the true birthplace of the high-polite style. The fact of its existence we have known long-too long; but it has been a phenomenon which has always puzzled us. People write it and talk it; but how did they come to write it and talk it ? We open our unavoidable daily paper, we read a political article, and are sorely troubled to find out what is meant by saying that we have a government in disponi- Now who are the people who use this bility." We look to the next column, and strange jargon? The scholar never uses it find that an assault committed by a man who-the peasant never uses it-unless when was very drunk is spoken of as committed either scholar or peasant has, as sometimes "in the plenitude of alcohol." We open happens, been exposed to those evil commuwhat professes to be a translation of about the wisest modern book in the French language, and we stand aghast at finding the simple ceci fait of the writer expanded by his interpreter into all the glory of "when these preliminaries are terminated." These odd phenomena set us speculating. What manner of men can they be who write in such a fashion? What an odd sight we should see if we could look into the mind of a man who talks about "the plenitude of alcohol," or who translates ceci fait by "when these preliminaries are terminated." What can be the origin and hitsory of such people? Where can they have learned their strange art? One can hardly think that they sucked in their dialect from their mothers or their nurses. Was the poor innocent baby, from the moment he was born, always" alluded to as an "individual"? Was he taught, as soon as he could speak, to "allude to " other "individuals"? Did he daily undergo a matutinal ablution ? Was he then clad in appropriate juvenile habiliments? And, finally, when these preliminaries were terminated, was he set down to partake of the refreshment of pap? Mothers and nurses have their own special follies, but we never suspected them of teaching darling baby to talk the high-polite style from the very beginning. Even the milder form of Johnsonese is described by Lord Macaulay as "a language which nobody hears from his mother or his nurse." And if Johnsonese is so unmotherly and un-nurselike, what shall we say of that modern speech compared with which the tongue of Johnson is but a slight departure from the tongue of Hengest and Cerdic? No; we always

Education seems just now to be dividing pretty nearly our whole attention with ironclad ships. The words "Revised Code," which, to a plain man, might suggest the idea that some Tribonian had been sitting upon the whole mass of the Laws of England, has somehow become the stock-phrase to express certain regulations about schools, mainly of the humblest class. On the other hand, we send out Royal Commissions look up every detail of the universities and the highest class of grammar schools. We thus take care of the two ends, and leave the middle to take care of itself. And the middle does take care of itself and in a very queer way too. There are a multitude of schools scattered up and down the land, which no Revised Code and no Royal Commission can

ever touch. They are the schools which | cal Spelling-Book and Expositor; an Introbring up the great class in which our pres- duction to the Spelling, Pronunciation, and ent constitution vests the main political Derivation of the English Language. The power. That this class is the worst taught fortunate author, who bears the not inapof all classes, we have long had a dim no-propriate name of Butter, has not, however, tion. In no class is the evil against which by any means confined his labors to philolSocrates strove, "the conceit of knowledge ogy. He has dabbled pretty largely in what are thought to be the more exact sciences; without the reality," so abundant at every for, besides the 235 editions of the Etymocorner. And we need not add that this class logical Spelling-Book, Mr. Butter has put the class which despises the National forth Tangible Arithmetic and Geometry for School, and which does not aspire to the Children, and The Dissected Trinomial Cube. public school and the University—is the We have not the faintest notion what these class of all others among which the grand hear that" by an improvement in the mode things may be like; but it is comforting to style, the high-polite style, flourishes as its of manufacture," Mr. Butter "has been ennatural speech. abled to reduce their prices to less than half what they formerly were." And we have Mr. Butter's own word for it, that by those

will be found that he has happily succeeded in blending sound instruction with neverfailing delight." A man whose books go through 235 editions has won a fair right to praise himself, so we are not surprised to find that Mr. Butter has a pretty good opinion of his own etymological powers:

"It is not for me to judge what others may think of the etymological matter of this work, which forms Part III., and occupies more than half the book, and from which it I can only derives its distinguishing name. say that I think it far surpasses, in importance and practical utility, anything that is to be found in other spelling-books. To be sure, this piece of self-praise was written in 1829; but the other piece of self-praise is as recent as 1854, while the 235th edition bears the date of 1860, and we find the book used in 1862.

There is no law in England which hinders any man who likes from calling himself a schoolmaster, or any woman who likes from" who are induced to examine them," "it calling herself a schoolmistress. Or, if there be any such law, at all events it is not overrigidly enforced. Therefore every man who has broken down at all other trades, sets up an Academy for Young Gentlemen. Therefore every widow or old maid who wants to turn a penny, and knows no other way to turn it, sets up an Establishment for Young Ladies. School-keeping, in short, is the one profession open to everybody-the one calling in which no sort of qualification is needful. Even Margeites-we think it was Margeites-to whom the gods had not given wit enough to dig or to guide the plow, might have driven a roaring trade as Principal of a Commercial and Agricultural Academy. We are not going to examine, for we confess our incapacity, into the technical instruction which may be given to the commercial and agricultural young gentlemen, or into the elegant accomplishments which are brought home by the commercial and agricultural young ladies. But accident has put into our hands some specimens of the sort of books in the department of general literature which are employed as food for the minds of those young gentlemen and young ladies for whom the National School is looked down upon as not genteel enough. The books are, to our taste, very curious in themselves, and they become still more so if we are right in looking on them as the true nurseries of the magnificent style of our penny-a-liners.

We have now before us the 235th edition -one is inclined to bow down before the golden calf of literature on copying such a figure-the 235th edition of the Etymologi

Now the main object of Mr. Butter's etymology is to fill children's heads with long Latin and Greek words, with Latin and French phrases, and generally with the whole jargon of the grand style. Derivation "is by Mr. Butter, according to his own account, "first presented in a usable form." Till Mr. Butter arose," the gratification in tracing a word up to its primitive" was an "advantage chiefly confined to those who possessed some knowledge of Latin." Mr. Butter's fashion of doing business is on this wise. First, he goes through pages of long words, such as "phlebotomy,"" masticatory," "coadjuvancy," "septentrionality," "circumgyration," "inamorato," "calamanco," and

sarsaparilla." All these the unlucky pupil has to learn by heart and spell, syllable by syllable, without any hint of their meaning or lack of meaning. Then come "Synonymous Words," some of them very queer"Irregular Verbs," that is, all those which have

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the good luck to retain the strong form in speech and writings. In the case of the the past tense-" Opposites," Correlatives," French, even the pronunciation is oblig"Trines," and "Quaternions." Examples ingly given. But whether anybody will of "Trines" are "Son, Husband, Father" pass for a Frenchman on the strength of "Red, Yellow, Blue" "Knowledge, In- pronouncing Restaurateur, Re staur ah tehr, telligence, Wisdom". -"Literature, Science, or Je ne sais quoi, Zhehn say quaw, we have Art." Examples of "Quarternions " are some slight doubts. 'Point, Line, Surface, Solid "—" Europe, We have a good deal more to say about Asia, Africa, America ”—“ Matthew, Mark, the books used in these middle-class schools, Luke, and John." After a good deal more and we may perhaps look at them again ancurious matter, we reach the strictly etymo- other day. But Mr. Butter stands out first logical part. We must allow that Mr. But- and foremost. We cannot help thinking ter does tell his pupils that "the foundation that in the two hundred and thirty-five ediof the English language" is what he is tions of his spelling-book we have found the pleased to call the "Saxon;" and after sev- genuine source of the fine writing of the age. eral lists of Latin terminations, he throws in Let us suppose a cleverish lad who drew his a few "Saxon" terminations also. But the first notions of English literature and Engmain substance of Mr. Butter's etymology lish etymology under the inspiration of Mr. consists of long strings of Latin words, with Butter. He would have learned the carditheir English Derivatives. Sometimes the nal rule of using a long word rather than a definitions are odd-sometimes the deriva- short word, a Latin word rather than a Teutions are odd also. But the grouping is the tonic word, and the other cardinal rule of funny thing. Under Cura, for instance, we affecting smartness and scholarship by lardhave Cure, Curable, Curate, Curacy, Curious, ing as many sentences as possible with Incurious, Curiosity, Accurate, Accuracy, phrases in other languages. He has thus Procure, Security, Sinecure. Under Ducere made the first and most important steps we have Duke, Ductile, Abduction, Abduce, towards the practice of the grand style. Let Conduct, Conduct, Conduce, Conduit, De- us then suppose that, to the great groundduct, Deduce, Education, etc., etc. All these work of Butter, he gradually adds a superfihave definitions, often queer enough, but there cial knowledge of several languages and sevis no attempt made to explain the history of eral subjects that he picks up the formula the word no attempt to explain the deriva- of some profession or of some public employtion of both halves of a compound word. ment-that he contrives to scrape together a No distinction is made between those Nor- fair outward show of cleverness and general man settlers which, after ages of natural- information-and we get the highest develization, no one feels to be strangers, and the opment of the system of which Mr. Butter merest technical importations of the last two lays the foundation. We suspect that many or three centuries. Once or twice perfectly of the first writers of the age were in their good Teutonic words, like time, have got earlier years fed upon Butter. A full-grown set down as "derived" from their Latin cog-disciple of Butter, if he took to smart gennates. Then follows a list of Greek deriva-eral writing, would be just the man to think tives, many of them of the most wonderful it very fine to say that a drunken man was sort-such are Hydragogues, Aphilanthropy, "in the plenitude of alcohol.' If he took Autoptical, Orthodromy, Nomothetical, Polylogy, Ectype, and finally Alectoromachy, of which last we may literally say that it "beats cock-fighting."

Many of Mr. Butter's pretended Greek derivations are quite wrong to urge, for instance, from pyou; but that is not our point. The real objection is to cramming boys and girls with these absurd words, many of which are not strictly words at all, but the merest technicalities of particular sciences. The natural tendency is to make them forget or despise the real genuine English tongue. Nay, Mr. Butter goes a step farther. He has a royal road for seeming to know Latin and French without having learned them. He treats us to several pages of Latin and French words and phrases, by a discreet use of which a man might, with very little trouble, throw an air of no small scholarship over his

to politics and contrived to get into the outskirts of the political world, he would think it wonderfully clever to shake his head with imperial gravity and say that "the destinies of the American people will be fulfilled." If to his other accomplishments he added a smattering of French, and on the strength of it took to translating French books, he would think it no more than his duty to his author to expand such a paltry pair of words as ceci fait into the sonorous and truly Butterian dignity of "when these preliminaries are terminated."

Mr. Butter, if he made decent terms with his publishers, must be a wealthy man. The author of a 235th edition is a being to whom we look up with a sort of breathless reverence. But, anyhow, he ought to be a proud and happy man, the true father and founder of the rhetoric of his age.

From The Boston Transcript, 25 April. THE PEOPLE ARE THE POWER.

all the accessories of personal and party antagonisms, to seek with undivided purpose the welfare of the republic.

Two unavoidable disadvantages, not to call them evils, have complicated the presThe public opinion-strengthening the ent crisis of the republic, and prevented its hands and reciprocating the confidence of being dealt with in what otherwise might the President, who has proved himself the have been a more straightforward and sum- man for the hour-has made the right vicmary way. The collision found the country torious thus far and compelled obedience sharply divided by party lines. Obvious from all sides to its behest. This same necessity compelled the employment as public opinion-manifested especially by leaders of those more or less identified with the rank and file in the army and in civil past political struggles, and affected by all life, must and will finish the great work it the prejudices, personal alienations, and has begun. It cares little for military comconflicting schemes, such struggles engen- manders, except as they are found faithful der. This, though it is not easy to see how and competent as such. It cares little for it could have been helped, has undoubtedly political leaders, except as they are wise been the occasion of embarrassments, de- enough, for the present at least, to conselays, collisions, and corruptions. The roused crate their energies to the overthrow of and indignant patriotism of the land, giving treason. The almost entire absence from unity and force to public sentiment, over- the popular mind of anything beyond a whelmed, for a time, the plots and plans passing thought, for men or measures, deand silenced the controversies of the "ins" bates or squabbles, that have no direct and and the "outs," and stopped the selfish efforts of aspirants for power and patronage. The people were as the people to a great extent still are-of one mind; and the voice of the people was too imperative and decided for any faction to resist.

immediate bearing on the settlement of the one transcendent question, as to what power and what principles shall rule the country, is a grand reality and full of promise.

The might and instincts of the people have proved their own salvation thus far. The good sense and firm resolution of the people will take care of the future. The people see that the restoration of the authority of the Federal Government is all that is necessary to settle matters. They understand, that when the lost positions and

As, however, it began to appear that the power of the Government, sustained heartily by the Free States, was equal to the emergency, and the question of its triumph only a question of time, the old differences began to show themselves, and the old disputations, recriminations, suspicions, to re-treasures belonging to the United States are appear. The extremes parted company, to renew, in a degree, the conflicts-breaking the armistice they had been forced to accept and observe. Radicalism and conservatism both set about manufacturing capital and re-electing their standard-bearers, actual or to be; and partisans returned to their suspended work of engineering to keep possession of fields won or to win back fields lost.

To this fact are attributable many of the hindrances, and much of the mismanagement and waste, the general loyalty has had to bear. Thanks to this loyalty and to the steady unselfishness of the Executive, the good cause has prospered, notwithstanding the obstacles thrown in its way by those too intent upon serving their own interest, or too thoroughly influenced by their likes and dislikes, and their devotion to old issues with

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recovered, and the stars and stripes wave over its custom-houses, post-offices, courts, arsenals, and fortresses kept floating in the breeze by the protection of their own invincible hands-they can safely wait for delusions to dissolve, falsehoods to be refuted, passions to cool, prejudices to die out, until the entire land, relieved from the plague of scheming demagogues and ambitious traitors, shall accept its privilege to be great and prosperous beyond all other lands, under the dominion of free, republican institutions. Thus the people think and feel; and they ask to-day-rejoicing in what they already see of the brilliant beginning of the glorious end-only what they have asked from the outset that the rebellion should be crushed by the energetic use of all means necessary to the speediest accomplishment of that result.