ed to the collection of Voyages
published in 1577, he finds fault with Eden's translation from Peter
Martyr, for using words that "smelt too much of the Latine." We should
scarcely have expected to find among them _ponderouse_, _portentouse_,
_despicable_, _obsequious_, _homicide_, _imbibed_, _destructive_,
_prodigious_. The only words he quotes, not thoroughly naturalised, are
_dominators_, _ditionaries_, (subjects), _solicitute_ (careful).

The Tatler, No. 230, introduces several polysyllables introduced by
military narrations, "which (he says), if they attack us too frequently,
we shall certainly put them to flight, and cut off the rear;" every one
of them still keep their ground.

Half the French words used affectedly by Melantha, in Dryden's _Marriage
a-la-Mode_, as innovations in our language, are now in common use,
_naivete_, _foible_, _chagrin_, _grimace_, _embarras_, _double
entendre_, _equivoque_, _eclaircissement_, _ridicule_, all these words,
which she learns by heart to use occasionally, are now in common use. A
Dr. Russel called Psalm-singers _Ballad-singers_, having found the Song
of Solomon in an old translation, the _Ballad of Ballads_, for which he
is reproached by his antagonist for not knowing that the signification
of words alters with time; should I call him _knave_, he ought not to be
concerned at it, for the Apostle Paul is also called a _knave of Jesus
Christ_.[23]

Unquestionably, NEOLOGY opens a wide door to innovation; scarcely has a
century passed since our language was patched up with Gallic idioms, as
in the preceding century it was piebald with Spanish, and with Italian,
and even with Dutch. The political intercourse of islanders with their
neighbours has ever influenced their language. In Elizabeth's reign
Italian phrases[24] and Netherland words were imported; in James and
Charles the Spanish framed the style of courtesy; in Charles the Second
the nation and the language were equally Frenchified. Yet such are the
sources from whence we have often derived some of the wealth of our
language!

There are three foul corruptors of a language: caprice, affectation, and
ignorance! Such fashionable cant terms as "theatricals," and "musicals,"
invented by the flippant Topham, still survive among his confraternity
of frivolity. A lady eminent for the elegance of her taste, and of whom
one of the best judges, the celebrated Miss Edgeworth, observed to me,
that she spoke the purest and most idio