The Queen's English vs The Dean's English [pp. 558-585]

18(37.] The L?ean's ~ngiish. 579
if the house had been being built, the mortar would have been
being mixed." It is unnecessary to refer to the classical or
other languages to prove that active forms with a passive sense
are constantly used.
The Dean is also correct, we think, when he condemns the
expression "to open up," which is so often seen in the
newspapers and is so frequently heard in the prayers of
Presbyterian ministers. Much to our surprise Mr. Moon
defe1~ds the expression, and quotes against the Dean three
authors in "Good Words." Unfortunately "to open up" is a
Scotticism, and the three authors quoted are "Scotch of the
Scotch," viz., Guthrie, McLeod, and Caird, and therefore not
very good witnesses as to the point in question. The Dean
also condemns the use of "dzfferent to" for "dzfferent from."
This mistake is not corn mon in America, but the very last
English book into which we have looked (~cce ~eus,) contains
it. Englishmen, however, do not make the mistake of saying,
"I dzffer with ~ou," when they mean "I dzffcrfrom ~ou," as
may be read in every newspaper controversy, or heard in every
animated discussion in this country. Neither do they say an
event "transp??~ed in our midst," when they wish to announce
that something has "occurred in the midst of us;" and if they
happen to be present at the occurrence of anything, they do
not say "we happened in," or "we eo~~e as it was trans')iri~~g."
In England professors teach their pupils, they do not learn
them, although the Anglo-Saxon l~ran did originally mean to
teach, and Shakespeare says,
"Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness."
The distinction between the verbs to teach and to learn had
not been so clearly defined as is the case at present. In this
passage they are precisely synonymous:-" Unless you could
teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me
how to remember any extraordinary pleasure."
In England both donate and "donation visits" are u~known,
the verbs loan and jeopardize are not employed, but that "vile
vocable talented," as Coleridge calls it, is stealing into good
society and attempting to introduce along with itself, gfted,
~one~ed, &c. The English use grow in a transitive sense, and