Owen—Hybrid Parts of Speech. 
22 $ 
ever shortage of such value there he then in a single leaving; 
of the house, is twice as great in two housedeavings; and the more 
the phenomena recorded by my generalization outnumber the 
one phenomenon observed by you, the more I have by my osten¬ 
sible explanation increased the difficulty of explaining. The 
general statement of Brown’s mishaps not only does nothing 
toward explaining any one of them, but also, introducing a 
total still more difficult to explain, augments the embarrass¬ 
ment of the investigator; and the last state of that man is 
worse than the first. 75 
My illustration seems to me, however, to parallel exactly the 
procedure of at least a considerable number of Grammar- 
teachers. If your school experience tallies with my own, we 
were allowed, if not distinctly encouraged, to regard the rule 
of linguistic usage as furnishing the cause of the particular 
linguistic occurrence. Given the question “Why is this verb 
in the subjunctive ?” we answered “Because it expresses what 
is feared”—or even “Because it follows a verb of fearing.” 
That is, of two phenomena succeeding regularly one upon the 
other, the earlier is the cause of the later. In other words, 
“post hoc, ergo propter hoc.” Or if anyone object that “suc¬ 
ceeding” should be replaced by “attendant,” I offer the greater 
absurdity of “cum hoc, ergo propter hoc.” 78 
CONDITIONS OF CHOICE. 
Choice of verbal forms implies, in a language, a develop¬ 
ment sufficient to afford an opportunity to choose, and, in the 
individual, a knowledge of the language, sufficient to permit a 
75 That the general statement has a stimulative value is obvious, the 
regular sequence of two phenomena suggesting causal relation into 
which, in some way, each of -them enters. 
76 Such experiences—and their name is legion—invite a chapter on 
the mental risk attending exposure to academic language-teaching—a 
risk that is largely neutralized, no doubt, by the severely rational ele¬ 
ments of the curriculum, scientific, mathematical and philosophical. 
Unfortunately, however, he whose mental dangers are thus escaped is 
commonly left with a distrust of language-study, so pronounced as to 
deprive it of his support; while he to whom the severer forms of 
reasoning are repellent, he who can view inveterate error with the eye 
of untroubled faith—he it is, that becomes the devotee of language- 
study, the recognized apostle of linguistic doctrine. 
