III. Until recent years English writers were in the habit of
experimenting somewhat freely in language, and to their word-coining
activity we owe many of our current and most useful terms. But since
Carlyle there have been until lately few experiments of this kind.
Many words are added every year to the English vocabulary, but they
are for the most part the deliberate creations of scientific writers;
while the very men who should concern themselves with this matter
stand aloof, and leave it to those who by nature and profession are
least sensitive to the aesthetic requirements. We would therefore
encourage those who possess the word-making faculty to exercise it
freely; and we hope in the future that suggestions from our members
may help men of science and inventors in their search for new and
appropriate names.

IV. Although men of letters may occasionally add to the resources of
the language by word-coinage, their main activity is and must be one
of selection. They are forced, for the most part, to choose their
vocabulary from the supplies at hand, and by their choice they do much
to give prevalence to the words which meet with their approval. Now,
believing that language is or should be democratic both in character
and origin, and that its best word-makers are the uneducated, and not
the educated classes, we would prefer vivid popular terms to the
artificial creations of scientists. We shall often do better by
inquiring, for instance, not what name the inventor gave to his new
machine, but what it is called by the workmen who handle it; and in
adopting their homespun terms and giving them literary currency, we
shall help to preserve the living and popular character of our speech.

V. The present spread of education, and the enforcement of a uniform