istered an oath not to encourage so base a fashion.
We have consulted old Homer, and he quite approves our indignation."

* * * * *

Speaking of certain Americanisms and of our ridiculous squeamishness in
the use of certain honest words, Landor remarked: "You Americans are
very proper people; you have difficulties, but not diseases. Legs are
unknown,--you have limbs; and under no consideration do you go to
bed,--you retire." Much of this I could not gainsay, for only a few days
previously I had been severely frowned upon for making inquiries about a
broken leg. "My dear," said Landor to a young American girl who had been
speaking of the city of New Or_leens_,--such being the ordinary Southern
pronunciation,--"that pretty mouth of yours should not be distorted by
vulgar dialect. You should say Or'leans." But he was never pedantic in
his language. He used the simplest and most emphatic words.

* * * * *

There are those who accuse Landor of having sacrificed all things to
style: it were as wise to assert that Beethoven sacrificed harmony to
time. If his accusers would but read Landor before criticising, a proper
regard for their own reputations would prevent them from hazarding such
an opinion. "Style," writes Landor, "I consider as nothing, if what it
covers be unsound: wisdom in union with harmony is oracular. On this
idea, the wiser of ancient days venerated in the same person the deity
of oracles and of music; and it must have been the most malicious and
the most ingenious of satirists who transferred the gift of eloquence to
the god of thieves." Those who by the actual sweat of their brows have
got at the deep, hidden meaning of the most recent geniuses, will honor
and thank Landor for having practically enforced his own refreshing
theory. There are certain modern books of positive value which the
reader closes with a sense of utter exhaustion. The meaning is
discovered, but at too great an outlay of vitality. To render simple
things complex, is to fly in the face of Nature; and after such mental
"gymnastics," we turn with relief to Landor. "The greater part of those
who are most ambitious of style are unaware of all its value. Thought
does not separate man from the brutes; for the brutes think: but man
alone thinks beyond the moment and beyond himself. Speech does not
separate them; for speech is common to all, perhaps more or less
articulate, and conv