A History of English Language

The appeal to authority, 1650-1800 265
wards are preferable to backward and forward; by this canon, from the principle of
analogy, afterwards and homewards should be preferred to afterward and homeward. Of
the two adverbs thereabout and thereabouts, compounded of the particle there and the
preposition, the former alone is analogical, there being no such word in the language as
abouts. The same holds of hereabout and whereabout. In the verbs to dare and to need,
many say, in the third person present singular, dare and need, as ‘he need not go’; ‘he
dare not do it’ Others say, dares and needs. As the first usage is exceedingly irregular,
hardly any thing less than uniform practice could authorize it.” 38 It was also reasoned,
however, that where two expressions often used interchangeably could be differentiated,
it was better to make a distinction. Accordingly Campbell argued: “In the preposition
toward and towards, and the adverbs forward and forwards, backward and backwards,
the two forms are used indiscriminately. But as the first form in all these is also an
adjective, it is better to confine the particles to the second. Custom, too, seems at present
to lean this way.” 39 The same consideration led Priestley to say, “As the paucity of
inflections is the greatest defect in our language, we ought to take advantage of every
variety that the practice of good authors will warrant; and therefore, if possible, make a
participle different from the preterite of a verb; as, a book is written, not wrote; the ships
are taken, not took” With this opinion Dr. Johnson was in sympathy.
A second consideration was etymology. On this account Johnson and Lowth preferred
averse from to averse to. Campbell again states this principle most fully. He says, “When
etymology plainly points to a signification different from that which the word commonly
bears, propriety and simplicity both require its dismission. I use the word plainly,
because, when the etymology is from an ancient or foreign language, or from obsolete
roots in our own language, or when it is obscure or doubtful, no regard should be had to
it. The case is different, when the roots either are, or strongly appear to be, English, are in
present use, and clearly suggest another meaning. Of this kind is the word beholden, for
obliged or indebted. It should regularly be the passive participle of the verb to behold,
which would convey a sense totally different. Not that I consider the term as equivocal,
for in the last acceptation it hath long since been disused, having been supplanted by
beheld. But the formation of the word is so analogical, as to make it have at least the
appearance of impropriety, when used in a sense that seems naturally so foreign to it.” 40
By the same reasoning he maintains, “The verb to unloose, should analogically
38
Philosophy of Rhetoric, I, 378–79.
39
Ibid., I, 374–75.
40
Ibid., I, 397–98.