To be deliberately
and boldly ungrammatical, when you serve both euphony and simplicity, is
merely to give archaic charm, not to be guilty of an offence. I have
friends in Derbyshire who still say "Thee thinks," etc., and I must
confess that the picture of a Quaker rampant over my deliberate use of
this well-authenticated form of speech produced to my mind only the
effect of an infuriated sheep, when I remembered the peaceful attribute
of Quaker life and character. From another quarter came the assurance
that I was wrong when I set up a tombstone with a name upon it in a
Quaker graveyard. I received a sarcastic letter from a lady on the
borders of Sussex and Surrey upon this point, and I immediately sent her
a first-class railway ticket to enable her to visit the Quaker churchyard
at Croydon, in Surrey, where dead and gone Quakers have tombstones by the
score, and inscriptions on them also. It is a good thing to be accurate;
it is desperately essential in a novel. The average reader, in his
triumph at discovering some slight error of detail, would consign a
masterpiece of imagination, knowledge of life and character to the
rubbish-heap.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25