REQUISITES OF LANGUAGE. 479 



should be 'such as were, or at least might without contradicting obvious 

 facts be supposed to be, the result of a prudential regard to self-interest; 

 so that the words really connoted no more, in common acceptation, than 

 was set down in the definition. 



Suppose, now, that the partisans of this theory had contrived to introduce 

 .1 consistent and imdeviating use of the term according to this definition. 

 Suppose that they had seriously endeavored, and had succeeded in the en- 

 deavor, to banish the word disinterestedness from the language; had ob- 

 tained the disuse of all expressions attaching odium to selfishness or com- 

 mendation to self-sacrifice, or which implied generosity or kindness to be 

 any thing but doing a benefit in order to receive a greater personal advan- 

 tage in return. Need we say that this abrogation of the old formulas for 

 the sake of preserving clear ideas and consistency of thought, would have 

 been a great evil? while the very inconsistency incurred by the co-exist- 

 ence of the formulas with philosophical opinions which seemed to condemn 

 them as absurdities, operated as a stimulus to the re - examination of the 

 subject and thus the very doctrines originating in the oblivion into which 

 a part of the truth had fallen, were rendered indirectly, but powerfully, 

 instrumental to its revival. 



The doctrine of the Coleridge school, that the language of any people 

 among whom culture is of old date, is a sacred deposit, the property of all 

 ages, and which no one age should consider itself empowered to alter — 

 borders indeed, as thus expressed, on an extravagance ; but it is grounded 

 on a truth, frequently overlooked by that class of logicians who think more 

 of having a clear than of having a comprehensive meaning ; and who per- 

 ceive that every age is adding to the truths which it has received from its 

 predecessors, but fail to see that a counter process of losing truths al- 

 ready possessed, is also constantly going on, and requiring the most sedu- 

 lous attention to counteract it. Language is the depository of the accumu- 

 lated body of experience to which all former ages have contributed their 

 part, and which is the inheritance of all yet to come. We have no right to 

 prevent ourselves from transmitting to posterity a larger portion of this 

 inheritance than we may ourselves have profited by. However much we 

 may be able to improve on the conclusions of our forefathers, we ought to 

 be careful not inadvertently to let any of their premises slip through our 

 fingers. It maybe good to alter the meaning of a word, but it is bad to let 

 any part of the meaning drop. Whoever seeks to introduce a more correct 

 use of a term Avith which important associations are connected, should be re- 

 quired to possess an accurate acquaintance with the history of the particular 

 Avord, and of the opinions which in different stages of its progress it served 

 to express. To be qualified to define the name, we must know all that has 

 ever been known of the properties of the class of objects which are, or 

 originally were, denoted by it. For if we give it a meaning according to 

 which any proposition will be false which has ever been generally held to 

 be true, it is incumbent on us to be sure that we know and have considered 

 all which those who believed the proposition understood by it. 



