Book Description
from the GENERAL INTRODUCTION:
If
there is a subject of really universal interest and utility, it is the
art of writing and speaking one's own language effectively. It is the
basis of culture, as we all know; but it is infinitely more than that:
it is the basis of business. No salesman can sell anything unless he
can explain the merits of his goods in effective English (among
our people), or can write an advertisement equally effective, or
present his ideas, and the facts, in a letter. Indeed, the way we talk,
and write letters, largely determines our success in life.
Now
it is well for us to face at once the counter-statement that the most
ignorant and uncultivated men often succeed best in business, and that
misspelled, ungrammatical advertisements have brought in millions of
dollars. It is an acknowledged fact that our business circulars and
letters are far inferior in correctness to those of Great Britain; yet
they are more effective in getting business. As far as spelling is
concerned, we know that some of the masters of literature have been
atrocious spellers and many suppose that when one can sin in such
company, sinning is, as we might say, a "beauty spot", a defect in
which we can even take pride.
Let us examine the facts in the
case more closely. First of all, language is no more than a medium; it
is like air to the creatures of the land or water to fishes. If it is
perfectly clear and pure, we do not notice it any more than we notice
pure air when the sun is shining in a clear sky, or the taste of pure
cool water when we drink a glass on a hot day. Unless the sun is
shining, there is no brightness; unless the water is cool, there is no
refreshment. The source of all our joy in the landscape, of the
luxuriance of fertile nature, is the sun and not the air. Nature would
be more prodigal in Mexico than in Greenland, even if the air in Mexico
were as full of soot and smoke as the air of Pittsburg{h}, or loaded
with the acid from a chemical factory. So it is with language. Language
is merely a medium for thoughts, emotions, the intelligence of a finely
wrought brain, and a good mind will make far more out of a bad medium
than a poor mind will make out of the best. A great violinist will draw
such music from the cheapest violin that the world is astonished.
However is that any reason why the great violinist should choose to
play on a poor violin; or should one say nothing of the smoke nuisance
in Chicago because more light and heat penetrate its murky atmosphere
than are to be found in cities only a few miles farther north? The
truth is, we must regard the bad spelling nuisance, the bad grammar
nuisance, the in?rtistic and rambling language nuisance, precisely as
we would the smoke nuisance, the sewer-gas nuisance, the stock-yards'
smell nuisance. Some dainty people prefer pure air and correct
language; but we now recognize that purity is something more than an
esthetic fad, that it is essential to our health and well-being, and
therefore it becomes a matter of universal public interest, in language
as well as in air.
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