A History of English Language

The appeal to authority, 1650-1800 255
point to prove, that such a method could never effectually answer the end.” He then
repeats Johnson’s objections. At least some people realized that language has a way of
taking care of itself, and that features which appear objectionable to one age are either
accepted by the next or have been eliminated by time. Joseph Priestley, who, as we shall
see, was remarkably liberal in his views upon language, anticipating the attitude of later
times, inserts a passage in his Grammar (1761) that may be taken as indicating the
direction that opinion on the subject of an academy was taking in the latter half of the
eighteenth century: “As to a public Academy, invested with authority to ascertain the use
of words, which is a project that some persons are very sanguine in their expectations
from, I think it not only unsuitable to the genius of a free nation, but in itself ill calculated
to reform and fix a language. We need make no doubt but that the best forms of speech
will, in time, establish themselves by their own superior excellence: and, in all
controversies, it is better to wait the decisions of time, which are slow and sure, than to
take those of synods, which are often hasty and injudicious.” 20
196. Substitutes for an Academy.
Since the expectation of those who put their hopes in an academy must have been
considerably lessened by the failure of Swift’s Proposal, the only means left to them was
to work directly upon the public. What could not be imposed by authoritative edict might
still win adoption through reason and persuasion. Individuals sought to bring about the
reforms that they believed necessary and to set up a standard that might gain general
acceptance. In 1724 there appeared an anonymous treatise on The Many Advantages of a
Good Language to Any Nation: with an Examination of the Present State of Our Own.
This repeats the old complaints that English has too many monosyllables, uses too many
contractions, and has no adequate grammar or dictionary. But what is of more importance
is that it seeks to stir up popular interest in matters of language, calls upon the public to
take part in the discussion, and proposes the publication of a series of weekly or monthly
pamphlets on grammar and other linguistic topics. In 1729 one Thomas Cooke published
“Proposals for Perfecting the English Language.” 21 The reforms he suggests extend to the
changing of all strong verbs to weak, the formation of all plurals of nouns by means of -s
or -es, the comparison of adjectives only with more and most, and the like. Cooke was
both an idealist and an optimist, but he did not put his faith in academies. The change in
attitude, the belief that a standard was to be brought about not by force but by general
consent, is revealed in the words of Sheridan: “The result of the researches of rational
enquirers, must be rules founded upon rational principles; and a general agreement
amongst the most judicious, must occasion those rules to be as generally known, and
established, and give them the force of laws. Nor would these laws meet with opposition,
or be obeyed with reluctance, inasmuch as they would not be established by the hand of
power, but by common suffrage, in which every one has a right to give his vote: nor 20
That the idea of an academy was not dead is shown by Allen W.Read, “Suggestions for
an Academy in England in the Latter Half of the Eighteenth Century,” MP, 36 (1938),
145–56.
21
As an appendix to his Tales, Epistles, Odes, etc.