112 EMERITUS PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 



merely aim at reducing its vulgarisms to a minimum, and retaining only as much of it 

 as has become thoroughly engrained into the general structure of the language, and 

 could not be extruded without violence. 



After this detailed exhibition of the two styles, the. only question that remains is 

 how far the minority, as represented by these two eminent writers, are right, and on 

 what grounds they justify their departure from the prevalent style approved by the 

 great majority of their countrymen. On this head Bikelas says nothing ; but his motive 

 must be, no doubt, the notion that when a man writes for the people, he must write in a 

 style which the people understand. This, of course, is very proper as a general rule, but 

 its propriety depends on circumstances ; and if the majority of the people, as seems 

 plainly to be the case, prefer a style endeared to them by classical and ecclesiastical 

 tradition, the argument loses its validity. There are in Greece two peoples and two 

 dialects, just as there are in Scotland English and Scotch, each with its separate and 

 well-marked sphere, but one of the pair for general currency universally allowed to 

 dominate the other. But what does Polylas say? In the preface to his learned and 

 scholarly translation of the play from which we have quoted, he says " that the essential 

 character of the spoken language neither has been destroyed nor can be destroyed by 

 any merely external changes ; its internal organism remains, which expresses the inborn 

 inherent reason (evSidOerov \6yov), and breathes the living spirit of the people." This 

 also is very true as a general principle ; but it seems somewhat too strong language 

 to apply to the loss of the infinitive and the optative moods, and the use of auxiliary 

 verbs in a few cases. Besides, may we not justly ask, Does not the organism of 

 the upper stratum of the language, which came down in a continuous stream direct 

 from Constantinople, express the character of Greek thinking and the internal organism 

 of the Hellenic mind as much as the style of loose conversation and the popular ballad ? 

 Then, again, further on he says that " while the structure of ancient Greek was decidedly 

 synthetic, that of the modern dialect is as decidedly analytic." Here, again, we feel 

 compelled to make the remark that the instances relied on, as the use of the auxiliary 

 verbs, are too few to justify so large a conclusion and establish so striking a contrast. 

 Greek has never, like English, lost its native power of holding by the wealth of its 

 melodious terminations, and forming new compounds, when required, out of the fulness 

 of its own vitality. 



So far, our verdict is decidedly in favour of the procedure of the immense majority of 

 Greek writers from Coraes downwards — in favour, namely, of the tendency to abolish, as 

 far as possible without pedantry, the gap that, a hundred years ago, separated the Greek 

 of the common people from the Greek of the educated classes. In fact, without any 

 reasoning at all about the matter, the spread of education and intelligence among the 

 Greek people is filling up this gap day by day by an uncontrollable necessity. Of this 

 I will give two instances from my own experience. When in Athens for the first time 

 some forty years ago, a little girl, my landlord's daughter, was going down with me to 

 the Piraeus to get a boat for Salamis. Looking down to the shore, I said to my little 



