rd is also as of an unknown
tongue to him unless he understands yours. And it is this which makes
the art of language, if any one is to be chosen separately from the
rest, that which is fittest for the instrument of a gentleman's
education. To teach the meaning of a word thoroughly, is to teach the
nature of the spirit that coined it; the secret of language is the
secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle.
And thus the principles of beautiful speech have all been fixed by
sincere and kindly speech. On the laws which have been determined by
sincerity, false speech, apparently beautiful, may afterwards be
constructed; but all such utterance, whether in oration or poetry, is
not only without permanent power, but it is destructive of the
principles it has usurped. So long as no words are uttered but in
faithfulness, so long the art of language goes on exalting itself; but
the moment it is shaped and chiselled on external principles, it falls
into frivolity, and perishes. And this truth would have been long ago
manifest, had it not been that in periods of advanced academical science
there is always a tendency to deny the sincerity of the first masters of
language. Once learn to write gracefully in the manner of an ancient
author, and we are apt to think that he also wrote in the manner of some
one else. But no noble nor right style was ever yet founded but out of a
sincere heart.

No man is worth reading to form your style, who does not mean what he
says; nor was any great style ever invented but by some man who meant
what he said. Find out the beginner of a great manner of writing, and
you have also found the declarer of some true facts or sincere passions:
and your whole method of reading will thus be quickened, for, being sure
that your author really meant what he said, you will be much more
careful to ascertain what it is that he means.

69. And of yet greater importance is it deeply to know that every beauty
possessed by the language of a nation is significant of the innermost
laws of its being. Keep the temper of the people stern and manly; make
their associations grave, courteous, and for worthy objects; occupy them
in just deeds; and their tongue must needs be a grand one. Nor is it
possible, therefore--observe the necessary reflected action--that any
tongue should be a noble one, of which the words are not so many
trumpet-calls to action. All great languages invariably utter great
thi