OCR Text |
Show Great Writers Not Correct Writers. There is not a. single great author in our literature in whose works numerous numer-ous errors have not been pointed out or thought to be pointed out. They are charged with violating- rules involving the purity if not the permanence of the language. A somewhat "depressing, inference in-ference follows from the situation thus revealed. The ability to write English correctly does' not belong to the great masters of our speech. It is limited to the obscure men who have devoted themselves to the task of showing how far these vaunted writers have fallen short of the ideas of linguistic propriety proprie-ty entertained by their unrecognized betters. As a result of these critical crusades there is no escape from the dismal conclusion that the correct use of the language is not to be found in the authors whom every one reads with pleasure but is an accomplishment reserved re-served exclusively for those whom nobody no-body can succeed in reading at all. |