date

26 Aug. 1814 '.3 Logic Ch.
26 Aug. 1814 '.3

Logic

Ch. Language

Improvement 1. Copiousness

'.3 Psychical opponents

3

1

{But,} as there exist cases in which the alteration made in language by {the} increase given to the number of words, and combinations of words, of which it is composed, can not with propriety be set down to the account of advantage, so are there cases in which, though the addition, if made, is or would be of an advantageous nature, yet, the addition finds the introduction of it opposed, by various springs of human action, by various principles of human nature.

Indigenous weakness, viz. in the intellectual faculty, sinister interest, interest-begotten prejudice, adoptive prejudice; in this part of the field of action, as in every other, will human felicity find these its enemies set in array against it, and opposing its progress at every step.

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    Generally speaking, there exists in language a natural tendency to improve itself, or to speak strictly to become improved in respect of this desirable quality. The same causes, by the operation of which the earliest and scantiest stock of the instruments of thought and conversation were produced, continue in action, and will continue in action, without end. Observation, experiment, experience, reflection, discovery, invention: all these are so many seeds of language, seeds from which new additions to the stock of words and combinations in every language are continually springing up.

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    New words and new combinations, under /to/ one or other of these may every improvement of which language is susceptible in respect of copiousness be comprehended /referred/.

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    more copious a language is, the better: - the better adapted to the purposes of language.

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    Description: 26 Aug. 1814

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    Indigenous weakness, and adoptive prejudice applies[?] to all disciples Sinister interest & interest-begotten prejudice, to many.

    Let Reason be fruitful, Custom barren - such indeed is the advice which on this subject has been delivered. Delivered? - but by whom? by the Chancellor Bacon: by the man who of almost all men, whose mind was of almost all minds the most unlike to others. In regard to fruitfulness, how stands the matter as between Reason and Custom, in the world at large? Reason breeds like a free martin, Custom like a doe-rabbit.

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