fairest, purest, best into flowery dells where she can pluck the
richest food of knowledge, and crowns her brow with a coronet of gems
whose brilliancy can never grow dim: for they glisten with the purest
thought, that seems as a spark struck from the mind of Deity. There is
no need for the daughters of this community to seek colleges of
distant climes whereat to be educated, for right here in their own
city, God's paradise on earth, is situated a noble college, the bright
diadem of that paradise, that has done more for the higher education
of woman than any institution in our land."
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19

PURITY

An author's diction is pure when he uses such words only as belong to
the idiom of the language. The only standard of purity is the practice
of the best writers and speakers. A violation of purity is called a
barbarism.

Unlike the Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, the English is a living language,
and, like all living organisms, manifests its life by taking in new
material and casting off old waste continually. Science, art, and
philosophy give rise to new ideas which, in turn, demand new words for
their expression. Of these, some gain a permanent foothold, while
others float awhile upon the currents of conversation and newspaper
literature and then disappear.

Good usage is the only real authority in the choice of reputable
words; and to determine, in every case, what good usage dictates, is