reedom. No
philosophical writer with the exception of Plato, who is himself not
free from tautology, and perhaps Bacon, has attained to any high degree
of literary excellence.

To poetry the form and polish of language is chiefly to be attributed;
and the most critical period in the history of language is the
transition from verse to prose. At first mankind were contented to
express their thoughts in a set form of words having a kind of rhythm;
to which regularity was given by accent and quantity. But after a time
they demanded a greater degree of freedom, and to those who had all
their life been hearing poetry the first introduction of prose had the
charm of novelty. The prose romances into which the Homeric Poems were
converted, for a while probably gave more delight to the hearers or
readers of them than the Poems themselves, and in time the relation of
the two was reversed: the poems which had once been a necessity of the
human mind became a luxury: they were now superseded by prose, which
in all succeeding ages became the natural vehicle of expression to
all mankind. Henceforward prose and poetry formed each other. A
comparatively slender link between them was also furnished by proverbs.
We may trace in poetry how the simple succession of lines, not without
monotony, has passed into a complicated period, and how in prose, rhythm
and accent and the order of words and the balance of clauses, sometimes
not without a slight admixture of rhyme, make up a new kind of harmony,
swelling into strains not less majestic than those of Homer, Virgil, or
Dante.

One of the most curious and characteristic features of language,
affecting both syntax and style, is idiom. The meaning of the word
'idiom' is that which is peculiar, that which is familiar, the word or
expression which strikes us or comes home to us, which is more readily
understood or more easily remembered. It is a quality which really
exists in infinite degrees, which we turn into differences of kind by
applying the term only to conspicuous and striking examples of words
or phrases which have this quality. It often supersedes the laws of
language or the rules of grammar, or rather is to be regarded as another
law of language which is natural and necessary. The word or phrase which
has been repeated many times over is more intelligible and familiar
to us than one which is rare, and our familiarity with it more than
compensates for incorrectness or inaccuracy in the