ON MODERN INNOVATIONS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND IN PRINTING.

TO NOAH WEBSTER, JUN. ESQ. AT HARTFORD.

DEAR SIR,

Philadelphia, Dec. 26, 1789.

I RECEIVED, fome time fince, your Dissertations on the English Language. It is an excellent work, and will be greatly useful in turning the thoughts of our countrymen to correct writing. Please to accept my thanks for it, as well as for the great honour you have done me in its dedication. I ought to have made this acknowledgement fooner, but much indifpofition prevented

me.

I cannot but applaud your zeal for preferving the purity of our language both in its expreffion and pronunciation, and in correcting the popular errors feveral of our states are continually falling into with respect to both. Give me leave to mention fome of them, though poffibly they may already have occurred to you. I wish, however, that in fome future publication of yours, you would fet a discountenancing mark upon them. The first I remember, is the word improved. When I left New-England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among us, as far as I know, but in the fenfe of ameliorated, or made better, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled Remarkable Providences. As that man wrote a very obfcure hand, I remember that when I read that word in his book, used inftead of the word employed, I conjectured that it was an error

of

of the printer, who had mistaken a fhort / in the writing for an r, and a y with too short a tail for av, whereby employed was converted into improved: but when I returned to Bofton in 1733, I found this change had obtained favour, and was then become common; for I met with it often in perufing the newspapers, where it frequently made an appearance rather ridiculous. Such, for inftance, as the advertisement of a country house to be fold, which had been many years improved as a tavern; and in the character of a deceased country gentleman, that he had been, for more than thirty years, improved as a juftice of the peace. This ufe of the word improve is peculiar to NewEngland, and not to be met with among any other speakers of English, either on this or the other fide of the water.

During my late abfence in France, I find that feveral other new words have been introduced into our parliamentary language. For example, I find a verb formed from the fubftantive notice. I fhould not have noticed this, were it not that the gentleman, &c. Also another verb, from the subftantive advocate; The gentleman who advocates, or who has advocated that motion, &c. Another from the fubftantive progress, the moft aukward and abominable of the three: The committee having progreffed, refolved to adjourn. The word oppofed, though not a new word, I find used in a new manner, as, The gentlemen who are opposed to this meafure, to which I have alfo myself always been oppofed. If you fhould happen to be of my opinion with refpect to thefe innovations, you will ufe your authority in reprobating them.

The Latin language, long the vehicle used in diftributing knowledge among the different nations of Europe, is daily more and more neglected; and one of the modern tongues, viz. French,

feems,

feems, in point of univerfality, to have fupplied its place. It is spoken in all the courts of Europe; and most of the literati, those even who do not fpeak it, have acquired knowledge of it, to enable them eafily to read the books that are written in it. This gives a confiderable advantage to that nation. It enables its authors to inculcate and fpread through other nations, fuch fentiments and opinions, on important points, as are moft conducive to its interefts, or which may contribute to its reputation, by promoting the common interefts of mankind. It is, perhaps, owing to its being written in French, that Voltaire's Treatife on Toleration has had fo fudden and fo great an effect on the bigotry of Europe, as almoft entirely to difarm it. The general ufe of the French language has likewife a very advantageous effect on the profits of the bookfelling branch of commerce, it being well known, that the more copies can be fold that are ftruck off from one compofition of types, the profits increase in a much greater proportion than they do in making a greater number of pieces in any other kind of manufacture. And at prefent there is no capital town in Europe without a French bookfeller's fhop correfponding with Paris. Our Englifh bids fair to obtain the fecond place. The great body of excellent printed fermons in our language, and the freedom of our writings on political fubjects, have induced a great number of divines of different fects and nations, as well as gentlemen concerned in public affairs, to study it, fo far at least as to read it. And if we were to endeavour the facilitating its progrefs, the ftudy of our tongue might become much more general. Thofe who have employed fome part of their time in learning a new language, muft have frequently obferved, that while their acquaintance

quaintance with it was imperfect, difficulties, fmall in themselves, operated as great ones in obftructing their progrefs. A book, for example, ill printed, or a pronunciation in fpeaking not well articulated, would render a fentence unintelligible, which from a clear print, or a diftin&t fpeaker, would have been immediately comprehended. If, therefore, we would have the benefit of seeing our language more generally known among mankind, we fhould endeavour to remove all the difficulties, however fmall, that discourage the learning of it. But I am forry to obferve that, of late years, thofe difficulties, inftead of being diminished, have been augmented.

In examining the English books that were printed between the reftoration and the acceffion of George the Second, we may observe, that all fubftantives were begun with a capital, in which we imitated our mother tongue, the German. This was more particularly useful to thofe who were not well acquainted with the English, there being fuch a prodigious number of our words that are both verbs and fubftantives, and fpelt in the fame manner, though often accented differently in pronunciation. This method has, by the fancy of printers, of late years been entirely laid afide; from an idea, that fuppreffing the capitals fhews the character to greater advantage; thofe letters, prominent above the line, difturbing its even, regular appearance. The effect of this change is fo confiderable, that a learned man of France, who used to read our books, though not perfectly acquainted with our language, in converfation with me on the fubject of our authors, attributed the greater obfcurity he found in our modern books, compared with those of the period above mentioned, to a change of ftyle for the worfe in our writers; of which

mistake

mistake I convinced him, by marking for him each fubftantive with a capital, in a paragraph, which he then eafily understood, though before he could not comprehend it. This fhews the inconvenience of that pretended improvement.

From the fame fondness for an uniform and even appearance of characters in the line, the printers have of late banished also the Italic types, in which words of importance to be attended to in the sense of the fentence, and words on which an emphasis should be put in reading, ufed to be printed. And lately another fancy has induced other printers to use the rounds inftead of the long one, which formerly ferved well to diftinguifh a word readily by its varied appearance. Certainly the omitting this prominent letter makes a line appear more even, but renders it lefs immediately legible; as the paring of all men's nofes might smooth and level their faces, would render their phyfiognomies lefs diftinguishable. Add to all these improvements backwards, another modern fancy, that grey printing is more beautiful than black. Hence the English new books are printed in fo dim a character as to be read with difficulty by old eyes, unless in a very ftrong light and with good glaffes. Whoever compares a volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, printed between the years 1731 and 1740, with one of those printed in the laft ten years, will be convinced of the much greater degree of perfpicuity given by black than by the grey. Lord Chesterfield pleasantly remarked this difference to Faulkner, the printer of the Dublin Journal, who was vainly making encomiums on his own paper, as the most complete of any in the world. "Mr. Faulkner," fays my lord, " don't you think "it might be ftill farther improved, by ufing paper "and ink not quite fo near of a colour ?"-For all

But

thefe