ch," or "wisdom
of words." But this view of things presents no more ground for neglecting
grammar, and making coarse and vulgar example our model of speech, than for
neglecting dress, and making baize and rags the fashionable costume. The
same apostle exhorts Timothy to "hold fast the form of sound _words_,"
which he himself had taught him. Nor can it be denied that there is an
obligation resting upon all men, to use speech fairly and understandingly.
But let it be remembered, that all those upon whose opinions or practices I
am disposed to animadvert, are either professed grammarians and
philosophers, or authors who, by extraordinary pretensions, have laid
themselves under special obligations to be accurate in the use of language.
"The _wise in heart_ shall be called prudent; and _the sweetness of the
lips_ increaseth learning."--_Prov._, xvi, 21. "The words of a man's mouth
are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom [is] as a flowing
brook."--_Ib._, xviii, 4. "A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips
are the snare of his soul."--_Ib._, xviii, 7.

9. The old maxim recorded by Bacon, "_Loquendum ut vulgus, sentiendum ut
sapientes_,"--"We should speak as the vulgar, but think as the wise," is
not to be taken without some limitation. For whoever literally speaks as
the vulgar, shall offend vastly too much with his tongue, to have either
the understanding of the wise or the purity of the good. In all untrained
and vulgar minds, the ambition of speaking well is but a dormant or very
weak principle. Hence the great mass of uneducated people are lamentably
careless of what they utter, both as to the matter and the manner; and no
few seem naturally prone to the constant imitation of low example, and
some, to the practice of every abuse of which language is susceptible.
Hence, as every scholar knows, the least scrupulous of our lexicographers
notice many terms but to censure them as "_low_," and omit many more as
being beneath their notice. Vulgarity of language, then, ever has been, and
ever must be, repudiated by grammarians. Yet we have had pretenders to
grammar, who could court the favour of the vulgar, though at the expense of
all the daughters of Mnemosyne.

10. Hence the enormous insult to learning and the learned, conveyed in the
following scornful quotations: "Grammarians, go to your _tailors_ and
_shoemakers_, and learn from them the _rational_ art of constructing your
grammars!"--_Neef's Method of Educa