344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



would stand a little ahead of French, and not too far behind Spanish, 

 Italian or German in the way of logic and simplicity. But all that 

 trouble would be vain — a tremendous trouble, since it would oblige the 

 Anglo-Saxon world to learn its language anew. The qualities of Eng- 

 lish, not its defects, are the main obstacles to its adoption. 



The raciness of English is its glory and its bane. There is no more 

 strongly individualized language. On account of the very simplicity of 

 its grammar, of its syntactical flexibility, it has more idioms, and is 

 more puzzling to foreign minds, than either German or French. Eng- 

 lish is an admirable tool, plain, strong and sharp, singularly dangerous 

 in unskilled hands. 



The might of the English-speaking countries would be the next 

 objection. The balance of power would seem to be destroyed in their 

 favor. Germany could agree to the selection of Italian without loss of 

 self-respect, or even to that of French, because there are, for the adop- 

 tion of French, historical reasons which, at present, do not wound the 

 susceptibilities even of the most sensitive nation. But to accept Eng- 

 lish would be to acknowledge one's own inferiority. The boastful tone 

 of certain writers and orators, although that is fast becoming a thing of 

 the past, greatly increases the moral force of this objection. 



Finally, the English-speaking race is progressive, but on its own 

 traditional lines; its literature is deeply human, but intensely national 

 in its expression. The abstract, analytical character of classical 

 French, the effort to describe " man in general," and to discover truths 

 of immediate and universal application, are lacking in English. To 

 this fortunate lack, English literature owes much of its depth and fresh- 

 ness, English thought its " congruency with the unutterable," English 

 political life its wise compromises, its freedom from revolutions and 

 adventures. French is essentially international. Patriotism has in- 

 spired French writers to compose admirable poems, and Chauvinism is, 

 or used to be until quite recently, as rife in Paris as Jingoism in Lon- 

 don. Yet the French language can be so completely dissociated from 

 the French nation that the most abundant and the bitterest denuncia- 

 tions of France are written in French. 



Once more, I hold no brief for French. I do not believe that it will 

 ever be more fully recognized as international than it is at present. 

 There are strong reasons in its favor, but none is decisive. And there 

 are two great objections against it. It is the language of one of the 

 world-powers, and international jealousy would prevent its adoption. 

 Then its strongest claims are historical : but the new nations, America, 

 Japan, quietly ignore European history. A tradition is not a reason; 

 it loses all its virtue as soon as it is no longer respected. America 

 refuses to be ruled by the shade of Louis XIV. We can not blame her. 

 And I must say that, as a Frenchman, I do not regret it. 



