Book Reviews [pp. 221-224]

Bo6k I?Reviews.
"It was, however, as a manager of men, that Sam uel Adams was greatest. Such a master of the meth ods by which a town-meeting may be swvayed, the
world has never seen. On the best of terms with the
people, the ship-yard men, the distillers, the sailors,
as well as the merchants and ministers, he knew pre cisely what springs to touch. He was the prince of
canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which his
father was the inventor. His ascendency was quite
extraordinary, and no less marked over men of ability
than over ordinary minds. Always clear-headed and
cool in the most confusing turmoil, he had ever at
command, whether he was button-holing a refractory
individual or haranguing a Faneutil Hall meeting, a
simple but most effective style of speech. As to his
tact, was it ever surpassed? We have seen Samuel
Adams introduce Hancock into the public service,
as he (lid a dozen others. It is curious to notice how
he klnew afterwards in what ways, while he stroked
to sleep Hancock's vanity and peevishness, to bring
him, all unconscious, to bear-now against the Bos ton Tories, now against the English ministry, now
against prejudice in the other colonies. Penniless as
he was himself, it was a great point, when the charge
was made that the Massachusetts leaders were des perate adventurers, who had nothing to risk, to be
able to parade Hancock in his silk and velvet, with
his handsome vehicle and aristocratic mansion. One
hardly knows which to wonder at most, the astute ness or the self-sacrifice with which, in order to pre sent a measure effectively or to humor a touchy coworker, he continually postpones himself, while lihe
gives the foreground to others. Perhaps the most
useful act of his life was the bringiug into being of
the Boston Committee of Correspondence; yet, when
all was arranged, while he himself kept the laboring
oar, he put at the head the faltering Otis. Again
and again, when a fire burned for which he could not
trust himself, he would turn on the magnificent
speech of Otis, or Warren, or Quincy, or Church,
who poured their copious jets, often quite unconscious that cunning Sam Adams really managed the
valves, and was directing the stream."
Books on Correct Speech.'
THE little manuals of advice on behavior, speech
and so on, which from time to time undertake to
teach the public, are likely to be opened by the discreet critic with very little cordiality of expectation.
The better class of them contain very much that is
sensible, and that it is well to preach to the young or
other uninstructed persons; but it is nearly impossible to find one unvitiated by a few pieces of pedantic,
misleading, or even positively erroneous teaching.
If it were practicable, or were worth the while, to
go straight through a book of this sort, noting every
one of these failings, and then cheerfully recommending the residue to readers, it would be a simpler matter. As it is, we can only say that such books as
Discriminate, or its predecessor, " Don't," are valuable more in the teacher's hands than the pupil's, or
1 Discriminate. A Companion to "Don't." A Manual
for Guidance in the Use of Correct Words and Phrases
in Ordinary Speech. By " Critic." New York: D. Appleton & Co. x885.
How Should I Pronounce? By William Henry P.
Phyfe. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
r885.
those of the "gerleral reader." Yet, even one who
depended upon the book's teachings implicitly, with out the advantage of a teacher to tell him where to
distrust, would learn far more that was right than
wrong from Discrimiznate, and might, therefore, be
better off with than without it. This discriminating
between wordsis really an important matter, and the
slovenly confusion among them into which newspa pers," the spread of general information," and other
social conditions, are leading us, is ruinous to the
language. The discriminations between "ability"
and "capacity," and between "aggravate" and
"irritate," or "provoke," are, for instance, worthy
of attention; so between "allude," "speak of," and
"mention." Neglect of the distinction between
"in" and "into," and between "should" and
"would," amounts to positive error, and yet is so
common as to deserve attention in a book of this
sort. (A happy instan&e of the correct use of
"would" and "should," requoted from R. G.
White in this connection, is worth pausing to quote
yet again:
How long I shall love him I can no more tell,
Than, had I a fever, when I should be well.
My passion shall kill me before I will show it,
And yet I would give all the world he did know it;
But oh, how I sigh when I think should he woo me;
I can not refuse what I know would undo me!")
But it seems out of place to add to warning against
these confusions, which, though downright errors, are
possible even to good speakers, such primary school
blunders as "think for," "lay down" (for lie), "do
like I do," "those kind," "leave her be," and even
"he done it." An opposite fault is the insertion of
over-fine, fussy distinctions, or positive assertion on
mnooted points. Thus, "a setting hen," is prohibited-we must say "sitting"; we must not say "right
there," but "just there," nor "you are mistaken,"
but "you mistake." But if these instances be a trifle
pedantic, what of soberly telling us that we must not
say "a bad cold," but "a severe cold," nor "at
night," but "by night," nor "all over the country,"
but "over all the country?" These things are simply an obtuse failure to "discriminate" between
idiom and error. Any healthy language will grow
spontaneously into irregularities; every form of inflection, every figurative word, every abstract word,
in our language was once what a pedant could have
called an error. Language ought of right to be
used freely and flexibly, and allowed its natural developments: there is a total difference between such
use of it, and its murder by slovenly confusions; yet
what rule there is for recognizing this difference, we
cannot say-there is no short road to doing so. Nor
will such books as this teach it; yet in the hands of
a good teacher, "Discriminate" would be very useful.
H-Iow Should I Pronounce proves not to be exactly,
as its name would lead one to expect, of the class of
books to which "Discriminate" belongs. It is a
sound and careful manual, intended largely for col
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[Aug.