We have the best Bible in the world, and in Shakespeare the greatest
poet; we have been suckled on those twin breasts, and our children
must have degenerated if they need asses' milk. Nor is it only because
the old is better than the new that we think thus. If we speak more
proudly of Trafalgar than of Zeebrugge, it is not because Trafalgar
is so far finer a sounding word than Zeebrugge, as indeed it is, nor
because we believe that the men of Nelson's time were better than
our men of to-day, we know they were not, but because the spirit that
lives on ideals will honour its parents; and it is thinking in this
way that makes noble action instinctive and easy. Nelson was present
at Zeebrugge leading our sailors, as Shakespeare is with us leading
our writers, and no one who neglects the rich inheritance to which
Englishmen are born is likely ever to do any credit to himself or his
country.


5. _THAT THE SOUTH ENGLISH DIALECT IS A DIRECT AND CHIEF CAUSE OF
HOMOPHONES._

[Sidenote: Evidence of Jones' dictionary.]

Evidence of the present condition of our ruling educated speech in the
South of England I shall take from Mr. Daniel Jones' dictionary,[16]
the authority of which cannot, I think, be disputed. It is true that
it represents a pronunciation so bad that its slovenliness is likely
to be thought overdone, but there is no more exaggeration than any
economical system of phonetic spelling is bound to show. It is indeed
a strong and proper objection to all such simplifications that they
are unable to exhibit the finer distinctions; but this must not imply