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to pleai'e and alTift the imagination. Befides this there is a ditE- 

 cuky which aril'es from the vanity of each individual, who 

 fancies that in a new coinage of language his own authority 

 would be futncient to give credit and currency to any new 

 words he wiflied to bring into circulation. 



The prefs is an engine which every perfon can make ufe of 

 to convey his ideas to the public, and as long as any objeclion 

 can be made to the introdudiion of new characters it is not 

 probable that they Ihould be admitted, becaufe every perfon isf 

 confirmed by habit, vanity or immediate convenience, in the 

 ufe of the eftabliflied mode of expreflion. But when a man 

 vrifhes to convey his ideas to foreigners who do not underftand 

 his language, or whofe language he does not underftand, he 

 trufls with confidence to his interpreter, and is content to catch, 

 at fecond hand, fome knowledge of the terms which are em- 

 ployed in his fervice — he fubmits from neceflity to what he 

 would not floop by choice. When all competition ceafes men 

 are willing to learn voluntarily what they would never have 

 condefcended to be taught by compulfion. 



In this point of view it appears to me that the Telegraph 

 would be an eafy and certain means of introducing a univcrfal 

 language, and of improving it by degrees without any extra- 

 ordinary effort. The obje<5l would be accompliflied before it 

 was fufpeiled, and it would be fubjedl to lefs oppofition when 



prefented 



