men of letters, and the better class of journalists, are trained to
observe the changes of the language, and to assist consciously in its
development, being guided by acknowledged principles of tradition and
taste. But the English language, which is now rapidly spreading over
the world, is subject to no such guidance, and to very little
intelligent criticism. There is indeed occasional discussion, both in
the journals and in table-talk, concerning the choice and use of
special words and the standards of style; but this is mostly conducted
by irresponsible persons, who have no knowledge of the history of
English, and are even without any definite ideal or right conception
of what the essentials of a good language must be.

It is therefore proposed that a few men of letters, supported by the
scientific alliance of the best linguistic authorities, should form a
group or free association, and agree upon a modest and practical
scheme for informing popular taste on sound principles, for guiding
educational authorities, and for introducing into practice certain
slight modifications and advantageous changes.

The promoters of this association (which calls itself the 'Society for
Pure English') are of course well aware of the danger of affectation,
which constitutes the chief objection to any conscious reform of
language. They are fully on their guard against this; and they think
that the scheme of activity which they propose must prevent their
being suspected of foolish interference with living developments.

The ideal of their proposed association is both conservative and
democratic. It would aim at preserving all the richness of
differentiation in our vocabulary, its nice grammatical usages, its
traditional idioms, and the music of its inherited pronunciation: it