r years of good
service. Of new words, but little can be said. The language constantly
changes. New discoveries and inventions demand new words. What ones
will be more than temporary cannot be prophesied. "Blizzard" and
"mugwump" were new but a short time ago: the latter is dying from
disuse, the former has come to stay. In this uncertainty one thing can
be said, however. No word which has not secured recognition should be
used by a young person, if by reputable words already in the language
he can express his meaning. And just as he should not be the first to
take up an untried word, so the young writer should not be the last to
drop a dead one. There is at present a sort of fad for old English. A
large number of words that have been resting quietly in their graves
for centuries have been called forth. Some may enjoy a second life;
most of them will feel only the weakness of a second obsolescence.
"Foreword" and "inwit" were good once; but "preface" and "conscience"
mean as much and have the advantage of being alive. To be understood
use the words of the present.

Words in their Present Meaning.

Use words in their present signification. Not only has language cast
out many words; it has changed many others so that they are hardly
recognized. When Chaucer wrote,

"Ther may no man Mercury mortify
But hit be with his brother knowleching,"

"mortify" meant to make dead, to kill. To-day a lady may say she was
mortified to death; but that is hyperbole. In "Paradise Lost" Satan
may

"Through the palpable obscure find out
His uncouth way."

But a person to-day is not justified in using "uncouth" for "unknown."
The works of Shakespeare and Milton abound in words whose life has
been prolonged to the present, but whose signification has been
changed. The writer who seeks to use words with these old meanings is
standing in his own light. Such use always attracts attention to the
words themselves, and by so much subtracts attention from the thought.

Words of Latin and Saxon Origin.

Words that are in good use have been divided into two classes, as they
have been drawn from two sources. Some differences between Anglo-Saxon
and Latin words are marked. Saxon words are generally short; Latin
words long. The first are the words of home and are concerned with the
necessities of life; the second are the words of the court and the
adornments of polite society. The former made the foundation of our
langu