ON A DOMINANT LANGUAGE FOR SCIENCE. 247 



tlioy call wield tlieir influence by means of maintaining the unity oi' the 

 liin^iiii^e. Certain <;ircun>.stance« make it i)()8sible I'or them to do so 5 

 thus (he teiielieis and i)i()lessors mostly come IVom the States of New 

 Enjiiand. If these inlluential men truly comprehend the destiny ol' 

 their country, they will use every effort to transmit the language in its 

 l)urity; they will follow classic authors, and discard local innovations 

 and ex[)ressions. In this question of language, real patriotism (or, if 

 you will, the patriotism of Americans really ambitious for their country) 

 ought to be, to speak the English of Old England, to imitate the pro- 

 nunciation of the I'juglish, and to follow their whimsical orthography 

 until changed by themselves. Should they obtain this oi" their country- 

 men, they would render to all luitions and to their own an unquestiona- 

 ble benelit for luturity. 



The exaniple of England proves the inlluence of education u[)on the 

 unity of a language. It is the habitual contact of educated people and 

 the perusal of the same books which, little by little, is causing the dis- 

 appearance of Scotch words ami accent. A few years more, and the 

 language will be uniform throughout Great Britain. The principal 

 newspapers, edited by abhi n)en, also exercise a happy inlluence in pre- 

 serving unity. Whole columns of the "Times" are written in the Ian. 

 guage of Macaulay and Bulwer, and are read by millions of people. 

 The result is an impression which maintains the public mind in a proper 

 literary attitude. 



In America the newspaper articles are not so well written; but the 

 schools are accessible to all classes, and the universities count among 

 their professors men especially accomplished in their use of the li^nglish 

 tongue. If ever there should arise a doubt in the oi)iiii()ns of the two 

 countries as to the advisability of modifying the orthography, or even 

 nudiiug changes in the language, it would be an excellent plan to organ- 

 ize a meeting of delegates from the princii)al univcnsities of the Three 

 Kingdoms, of America, and Australia, to [)r()pose and discuss such 

 changes. Doubtless they would have the good sense to make as few 

 innovations as possible ; and, thanks to common cojjsent, the advi(;e 

 would probably be followed. A few modilications in the orthograi)hy 

 alone would render the English language more easy to strangers, and 

 would contribute toward the maintenance of unity in pronunciation 

 throughout Anglo-American countries. 



NOTES BY DR. JOHN EDWARD GRAY, OF THE IJRITISH MUSEUM. 



It may be observed, in addition, that the i)eo[)le who use the English 

 language in different [)arts of the world arc a reading and a book-buying 

 people, and especially given to the study of quasi-scientili(5 books, as is 

 proved by the fact of the extensive sale which they command. 



In support of this assertion, I may quote the Baron Eerussac's re- 

 view of Wood's " Index Testaceologicus,'' in the Bull. Sci. Nat,, Paris, 

 1829, p. 375. He remarks : ' 



