A History of English Language

The appeal to authority, 1650-1800 267
lished laws of speech; but we must remark how the writers of former ages have used the
same word…. I shall therefore, since the rules of stile, like those of law, arise from
precedents often repeated, collect the testimonies on both sides, and endeavour to
discover and promulgate the decrees of custom, who has so long possessed, whether by
right or by usurpation, the sovereignty of words.” But he constantly strayed from his
intention. Chesterfield spoke in similar terms: “Every language has its peculiarities; they
are established by usage, and whether right or wrong, they must be complied with. I
could instance very many absurd ones in different languages; but so authorized by the jus
et norma loquendi [Horace again], that they must be submitted to.”
The person who more wholeheartedly than anyone else advocated the doctrine,
however, was Joseph Priestley. His voluminous writings on chemistry, natural
philosophy, theology, and politics have overshadowed his contributions to the study of
language. In this field, however, as in all others, he was independent and original, and in
his Rudiments of English Grammar (1761) he repeatedly insisted upon the importance of
usage. “Our grammarians,” he says, “appear to me to have acted precipitately in this
business” of writing a grammar of the language. “This will never be effected by the
arbitrary rules of any man, or body of men whatever.” “It must be allowed, that the
custom of speaking is the original and only just standard of any language. We see, in all
grammars, that this is sufficient to establish a rule, even contrary to the strongest
analogies of the language with itself. Must not this custom, therefore, be allowed to have
some weight, in favour of those forms of speech, to which our best writers and speakers
seem evidently prone…?” He states his own practice accordingly: “The best and the most
numerous authorities have been carefully followed. Where they have been contradictory,
recourse hath been had to analogy, as the last resource. If this should decide for neither of
two contrary practices, the thing must remain undecided, till all-governing custom shall
declare in favour of the one or the other.” In his lectures on the Theory of Language,
written the following year, he again affirmed his creed: “In modern and living languages,
it is absurd to pretend to set up the compositions of any person or persons whatsoever as
the standard of writing, or their conversation as the invariable rule of speaking. With
respect to custom, laws, and every thing that is changeable, the body of a people, who, in
this respect, cannot but be free, will certainly assert their liberty, in making what
innovations they judge to be expedient and useful. The general prevailing custom,
whatever it happen to be, can be the only standard for the time that it prevails.” 45
45
Theological and Miscellaneous Works (25 vols., n.p., n.d.), XXIII, 198.