A 
32 MALLERY. 
Chaucer. Of late it has been the fashion to decry the study 
of Latin, indeed newspaperdom has sentenced that classic 
tongue to death, with more than the penalties of attainder, 
all phrases, quotations, and derivatives from it being tabooed. 
That sentence, however, is not a little ridiculous to those 
who can appreciate the fact that of all writers in English the 
editors and reporters of newspapers are the most addicted to 
long Latin words, which they often use with ludicrous im¬ 
propriety. A decree not to use Latin words without under¬ 
standing them would be highly beneficial, because it would 
have the result of stopping nearly all the writing in English 
of people who object to the study of Latin. There is truth 
in the assertion that either French or German gives com¬ 
mand of a more extensive and valuable literature than the 
Latin, but as a propaedeutic for the specific purpose of writ¬ 
hing and understanding English no language can compare 
with it. Certainly some other language besides English 
should be studied by the student of English. The most 
profound aphorism bearing on the subject is that “ he who 
does not understand more than one language understands 
no language.” For'broad philologic research several lan¬ 
guages, even such as the Klamath or the Dakota, may be 
more fruitful than either the Latin or the Greek, but Latin, 
on account of its incorporation, is the language most useful 
for understanding English. Doubtless there should be an 
aim to avoid long words when small words suffice, whatever 
the derivation of either, but the criterion should be that the 
words should be alive, which the healthy grafts of Latin on 
the English stock surely are. This criterion permits the 
use of new vivid terms for new ideas; terms which when they 
first appear are styled “slang,” but which, though taken 
from the mud of the streets, are often recognized as jewels. 
A live language grows and evolves novelty and the dic¬ 
tionary comes limping after. And thus it is that vocables 
from suburban slums may enhance inscriptions on Roman 
porticoes, and Mark Twain and Gavroche may supplement 
Cicero and Sir Thomas Malory. The struggle should be to 
