O UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



in their zeal to save the language from even the remotest danger of 

 fossilization they force it fantastically into all sorts of abnormal 

 growths such as we have instanced above; and, as Dr. Johnson might 

 have said, " the measure of their success is the extent of their departure 

 from rectitude." 



Now, this doubtless represents a successful twentieth-century 

 method of encouraging life and elasticity in our great mother-tongue; 

 but for antiquated people living in an "old and iterative world" the 

 policy must seem dangerously drastic. A few survivors still believe 

 that rational adaptability is one of the supreme merits of our lovable 

 language; that with its utilization of Saxon, Greek and Latin ele- 

 ments it is not less capable of prompt and unlimited expansion 

 than of leisurely and beautiful growth; and that its finest develop- 

 ment can come only by treating it with such noble homage and 

 devotion as it has received from the leaders of English literature in 

 all periods. Great writers have never hesitated to give old words a 

 new application or enrich them with enlarged connotation; nor have 

 they withheld their pens from coining fresh words that were needed 

 to make current a new conception, a deep thought, a brilliant witticism 

 or a gleam of fanciful humor. But through all their modifying and 

 innovating they have proceeded with a fine august submission to 

 fundamental fitness. 



And words are really wonderful things. We begin by such 

 humble steps as learning to spell them, and pronounce them, and by 

 getting their primary meanings. Then as the years roll round we 

 find how great minds have empowered them to disengage spirit from 

 matter and have dowered even a single word with such a wealth of 

 import that it brings the light of joy to our eyes or moves our heart 

 to bitter tears, that it carries us to the dreary house of death or 

 unspheres the harmony of heaven. And I suppose that most of us 

 must stop at this point; but I do not question that the great artist 

 in words, like the great master in music, may go far beyond us in his 

 love and appreciation. Extreme forms of this belief might be found 

 among the French symbolists ; but we need seek no further than one 

 of their admirers, Lafcadio Hearn, whom we may almost claim as an 



