considering that it concerned not their private good, but the
general interest of the whole province of writing: That he would
call to his remembrance the reasons which moved them at the first
to give him alone the authority over the pen, as one whom they then
thought most fit for such a government, and indeed most fit to
govern alone: That they now perceived, not any fault in him, for
using like a prince what was his peculiar right, granted by their
own commission, but an oversight in themselves in unadvisedly
overcharging him with an estate which he could not rule alone
without a sacrifice of his honour, whereof they were as tender as
of their own souls: That their request therefore unto him was not
to think more of his own private honour than of the good of the
whole province: That they might with his good leave amend their own
error, which however it concerned his person yet should not affect
his credit, the fault being theirs in their first choice.
They paused a little while, before they uttered the main cause
of their motion, for they noticed that sound began to change
colour, and was half ready to swoon. For the fellow is passionate,
tyrannous in authority but timorous.
Howbeit, seeing that the common good urged them to speech, they
went on, and told him in plain terms that he must be content to
refer himself to order, and so much the rather because their
meaning was not to seek either his deprivation or his resignation,
but to urge him to qualify his government, and make use of a
further council which they meant to join with him, as a thing
likely to bear great fruit, and of good example in many such cases,
since even great potentates and princes, for the general weal of
their states, were very well content, upon humble suit made to
them, to admit such a council, and use it in affairs: That the
reasons which moved them to make this suit, and might also move him
to admit the same, were of great importance: That because letters
were first found only to express him, therefore they had given him
alone the whole government therein, and were well contented with
it, until they had espied, not his misgovernment, but their own
mischoice: That the bare and primitive inventions, being but rude,
and being ruled accordingly, and experience at the time affording
no more growth in refinement, why should they not now yield to
refinement, upon better cause, what they yielded to rudeness from
mere necessity? That no man having any sense of the correctness in
writing that is commended by experience would yield the direction
to sound alone, which is always altering, and differs according as
either the pronouncer is ignorant or learned, or the parts that
pronounce are of clear or stop delivery, or as the ear itself has
judgment to discern: That considering these defects, which crave
reform, and the letter itself, which desires some assurance of her
own use, it might stand with his good pleasure to admit to his
council two grave and great personages, whom they had long thought
of, and through whose assistance he might the better govern the
province of the pen.
Since they praised the parties so much, he desired their names.
They answered--Reason, to consider what will be most agreeable upon
sufficient cause, and Custom, to confirm by experience and proof
what Reason would like best, and yet not to do anything without
conference with sound.
The personages pleased him for their own worthiness, but the very
thing that recommended them to him for their own value made him
dislike them for the danger to himself. For is not either reason or
custom, if it please them to aspire, more likely to rule the pen
than sound? said he to himself. Howbeit, after they had charged
his conscience with all those reasons in one throng, which they
had used individually before, urging that it were no dishonour to
yield a little to those who had given him his whole rule: That
they might have leave to amend their own error in overcharging
him: That though they seemed to lower his rank, yet they did not
seek to defraud him of his own: That the wrongs done to writing,
which they indicated to him were matters worthy of redress: That
the councillors whom they appointed were honourable and honest:
That the common benefit of the whole province of writing earnestly
sued for it, and they were very well assured that so good a father
as he was to that poor estate would never be unwilling, but rather
voluntarily condescend without any request, that he might not be
half dishonoured in delaying the request from not knowing the
grievances. After they had pressed him so closely, though he was
very loth, after being once a sole monarch, to become almost a
private person by admitting controllers, as it seemed to him,
rather than councillors, as they meant, yet perceiving that their
power was such that they might force him to grant what they begged
of him if he should try to make terms with them, he was content to
yield, though with some show of discontent in his very countenance,
and to admit Reason and Custom as his fellow-governors in the
correct method of writing.
For in very deed wise and learned people, whatever they may lend
ignorance to play with for a time, reserve to themselves judgment
and authority to exercise control, when they see unskilfulness
play the fool too much, as in this same quarrel for the alteration
of sounds according to a presumptuous rule they had very great
reason to do. For as in faces, though every man by nature has two
eyes, two ears, one nose, one mouth, and so forth, yet there is
always such diversity in countenances that any two men may easily
be distinguished, even if they are as like as the two brothers,
the Lacedaemonian princes, of whom Cicero speaks; so likewise in
the voice, though in everyone it passes through by one mouth,
one throat, one tongue, one barrier of teeth, and so forth, yet
it is as different in everyone, as regards the sound, by reason
of some diversity in the vocal organs, as the faces are different
in form, through some evident distinction in the natural cast of
features. And this diversity, though it hinders not the expression
of everyone’s mind, is yet too uncertain to rule every man’s pen in
setting down letters.
And again, what reason had it to follow every man’s ear, as a
master scrivener, and to leave every man’s pen to its own sound,
where there were such differences, that they could not agree where
the right was, everyone laying claim to it? Again, why should
ignorance in any matter be taken for a guide in a case demanding
knowledge? Because of the clamour of numbers? That were to make
it an affair of popular opinion, whereas the subject is one of
special difficulty, requiring wisdom. And therefore if any number,
though never so few, deserve to be followed, it were only they who
could both speak best, and give the best reason why. But that kind
of people were too few at the first to find any place against a
popular government, where the ear led the ear, and it was asked why
sound should give over his interest, seeing letters were devised
to express sound in every one of us, and not merely the fancy of
a few wise fellows. And yet when corn was once introduced, acorns
grew out of use though a fit enough meat in a hoggish world. For
naturally the first serves the turn till the finer and better comes
forward. And as something worthily took the place of nothing, so
must that something again give place to its better; as sound did
something to expel rudeness, though it may not set itself to keep
out progress in refinement.
Wise men would stand no longer to that diversity in writing, which
necessarily followed, when everyone spelt as his vocal organs
fashioned the sound, or as his skill served him, or as his ear
could discern. All these means are full of variety, and never in
agreement, as appears by the example of whole nations, which cannot
sound some letters that others can.
Owing to these discontentments, and by consent of those who could
judge and pronounce best, they arrived at a certain and reasonable
custom--or rather, truth to say, to a customary reason--which they
held for a law, not inadvertently hit on through error and time,
but advisedly resolved on by judgment and skill. Nor yet did they,
contrary to their promise, deprive sound of all his royalty, which
was like that of a dictator before, but they joined reason with
him, and custom too, so as to begin then in acknowledged right,
and not in corruption after, as a Caesar and a Pompey, to be his
colleagues in a triumvirate. From that time forward sound could
do much, but not at all so much as before, being many times very
justly overruled by his well-advised companions in office. Thus
ended the monarchy of sound alone.
We are now come to that government in writing which was under
sound, reason and custom jointly, and which proceeded in this
way. Reason, as he is naturally the principal director of all
the best doings, and not of writing alone, began to play the
master, but yet wisely and with great modesty. For considering
the disposition of his two companions, first of sound, which the
letters were to express in duty, being devised for that purpose,
and then of custom, which was to confirm and pave the way to
general approval, he established this for a general law in the
province of writing--that as the first founders and devisers of
the letters used their own liberty, in assigning by voluntary
choice a particular character for the eye, to a particular sound in
the voice, so it should be lawful for the said founders and their
posterity, according as the necessity of their use and the dispatch
in their pen did seem to require it, either to increase the number
of letters, if the supply seemed not to satisfy the variety in
sound, or to apply one and the same letter to diverse uses, if
it could be done with some nice distinction, in order to avoid a
multitude of characters, as we apply words, which are limited in
number, to things which are without limit; and generally, like
absolute lords in a tenancy at mere will, to make their own need
the test of all letters, of all writing, of all speaking, to chop,
to change, to alter, to transfer, to enlarge, to lessen, to make,
to mar, to begin, to end, to give authority to this, to take it
from that, as they themselves should think good. This decree being
penned by reason, both sound and custom at once approved--sound,
because there was no remedy, though his heart longed still for
his former monarchy, which was now eclipsed; custom, because that
served his turn best. For if necessary use and dispatch in the pen
could have authority, which was given them in law, by consent of
the men who were successors to those that first founded the letter
(which were men of the most learned and wisest sort), then were
custom indeed, having reason for a friend, and sound no foe, a very
great prince in the whole province in both writing and speaking.
And good reason why. For custom is not that which men do or speak
commonly or most, upon whatsoever occasion, but only that which
is grounded at the first upon the best and fittest reason, and is
therefore to be used because it is the fittest. If this take place
according to the first appointment, then is custom in his right; if
not, then abuse in fact seems to usurp upon custom in name. So that
I take custom to build upon the cause, and not to make the cause.
After reason had brought both sound to this order, and custom to
this authority, then was there nothing admitted in writing but that
only, which was signed by all their three hands. If the sound alone
served, yet reason and custom must needs confirm sound; if reason
must have place, both sound and custom must needs approve reason;
if custom would be credited, he could not pass unless both sound
supported him and reason ratified him.
During the combined government of these three, the matter of all
our precepts that concern writing first grew to strength; then
rules were established and exceptions laid down, when reason and
custom perceived sufficient cause. But none of all these were as
yet commended to art and set down in writing; they were only held
in the memory and observation of writers, having sufficient matter
to furnish the body of an art, but lacking in method, which came
next in place, and joined itself with the other three for this
purpose.
All this time, while reason and custom governed the pen as well as
sound, the discontented friends of sound never rested, but always
sought means to supplant the other two, ever buzzing into ignorant
ears the authority of sound and his right to his own expression;
and the same errors that troubled the pen while sound alone was the
judge, began to creep in again, and cause a new trouble, inasmuch
as all of the more ignorant sort were clearly of opinion that the
very sternness of sound was simply to be accepted without all
exception, though those of learning and wisdom, who had first set
up reason and custom as companions to sound, and still continued
of the same mind, could very well distinguish usurpation from
inheritance, and right from wrong.
Reason therefore, finding by the creeping in of this error both
that he himself was being injured by senseless time, and his good
custom sorely assailed by counterfeit corruption, perceived the
fault to lie in the want of a good notary, and a strong obligation,
by which to set in everlasting authority, by right rule and true
writing, what he and custom both, by the consent of sound, had
continued in use, though not put down in writing. This would ever
be in danger of continual revolt from the best to the worst, by the
uncertainty of time and the elvishness of error, unless it were
set down in writing, and the conditions subscribed by all their
consents, for a perpetual evidence against the repiner. For this
is the difference between a reasonable custom and an artificial
method, that the first does the thing for the second to confirm,
and the second confirms by observing the first.
While nothing was set down in writing, sound and his accomplices
were in hopes of some recovery, but this hope was cut off when the
writings were made, and the conditions settled. The notary who was
to cut off all these controversies and breed a perpetual quiet in
the matter of writing, was Art, which gathering into one body all
those random rules that Custom had beaten out, disposed them so in
writing, that everyone knew his own limits, Reason his, Custom his,
Sound his. Now when Reason, Custom, and Sound were brought into
order, and driven to certainty by the means of art and method, then
began the third, the last, and the best assurance in writing.
Art, being herself in place, perceived the direction of the whole
tongue to be an infinitely hard task--nay to be scarcely possible
in general, considering the diverse properties of the three rulers,
reason, custom, and sound, which alter always with time. For what
people can be sure of their own tongue any long while? Does not
speech alter sometimes for the better, if the State where it is
used itself continue and grow to better countenance, either for
great learning, or for any other matter, which may help to refine
a language? And does it not sometimes change to the more corrupt,
if the State where it is used chance to be overthrown, and a
master-tongue coming in as conqueror, command both the people, and
the people’s speech also? In consideration of this uncertainty, Art
betook herself to some one period in the tongue, when it was of
most account, and therefore fittest to be made a pattern for others
to follow, and pleasantest for herself to work and toil in. Upon
this period she bestowed all those notes, which she perceived by
observation (the secretary to reason) to be in the common use of
speech and pen, either clear in sound, or suitable to reason, or
liked by custom, but always supported by them all.
Such a period in the Greek tongue was the time when Demosthenes
lived, and that learned race of the father-philosophers: such a
period in the Latin tongue was the time when Cicero lived, and
those of that age: such a period in the English tongue I take this
to be in our own day, both for the pen and for speech.
Art choosing such a period in the primitive tongue, and having all
the material gathered into notes, wherewith to set up her whole
frame and building of method, distributed them in such a way that
there was not any one thing necessary for correct writing, but she
had it in writing, saving some particulars which will be always
impatient of rule, and make fresh matter for another period in
speech; though that which is now made so sure by means of art can
never be in danger of any alteration, but will always be held for
a precedent to others, being most perfect in itself. For a tongue
once enrolled by the benefit of art, and grown to good credit, is
established in such assurance that its right cannot be denied, and
opposition would be soon espied, however it should wrangle; then it
is made a common example for the refining of other languages, which
have material for such a method, and desire to be so refined.
This course was kept by the first tongue that ever was refined,
from the first invention of any letters, until corruption which
had slily crept in, but had been wisely perceived, made a reform
necessary. This reform grew again to corruption, in the nature of a
relapse, because, though it was soundly made, yet it was not armed
with sufficient security against the festering evil of error and
corruption. Therefore, when it felt the want of such an assurance,
it begged aid from art, which, like a beaten lawyer, handled the
matter with such forethought in the penning of his books, that each
of those who were in any way interested was taught to know what was
his own. Other tongues besides the first to be refined, on marking
this current of events, applied the same to their own writing,
and were very glad to use the benefit of those men’s labour, who
wrestled with the difficulties of sound, error, corruption, and the
residue of that ill-humoured tribe.
This original precedent in the first, and transferred pattern
in the rest, I mean to follow in finding out our correct English
writing, and whether it will prove to be fashioned accordingly and
framed like the pattern, shall appear when the thing itself shall
come forth in her own natural hue, though in artificial habit.
Before I deal further with this matter, I must examine two
principal points in our tongue, of which one is, whether it has
material in it for art to build on, because I said that art dealt
where she found sufficient matter for her labour. The other is,
whether our writing is justly challenged for those infirmities with
which it is charged in our time, because I said that this period
of our own time seems to be the most perfect period in our English
tongue, and that our custom has already beaten out its own rules,
ready for the method and framework of art. These two points are
necessarily to be considered. For if there be either no material
for art owing to the extreme confusion, or if our custom be not yet
ripe enough to be reduced to rule, then that perfect period in our
tongue is not yet come, and I have entered upon this subject while
it is yet too green. However, I hope it will not prove premature,
and therefore I will first show that there is in our tongue great
and sufficient stuff for art to work upon; then that there is no
such infirmity in our writing as is pretended, but that our custom
has become fit to receive this framing by art by the method which I
have laid down, without any outside help, and by those rules only
which may be gathered out of our own ordinary writing.
It must needs be that our English tongue has matter enough in
her own writing to direct her own practice, if it be reduced to
definite precepts and rules of art. The causes why this has not as
yet been thoroughly perceived are the hope and despair of those
who have either thought upon it and not dealt with it, or have
dealt with it but not rightly thought upon it.
For some, considering the great difficulty which they found to be
in the writing of our language, almost every letter being deputed
to many and various--even well-nigh contrary--sounds and uses, and
almost every word either wanting letters for its necessary sound,
or having more than necessity demands, began to despair in the
midst of such a confusion of ever finding out any sure direction
on which art might be firmly grounded. Perhaps either they did not
seek, or did not know how to seek, the right form of method for
art to adopt. But whether difficulty in the search, or infirmity
in the searchers, gave cause for this, the parties themselves gave
over the thing, as in a desperate case, and by not meddling through
despair they fail to help the right.
Again some others, bearing a good affection to their natural
tongue, and being resolved to burst through the midst of all these
difficulties, which offered such resistance, devised a new means,
in which they placed their hope of bringing the thing about.
Whereupon some of them who were of great place and good learning,
set forth in print particular treatises with these newly conceived
means, showing how we ought to write, and so to write correctly.
But their good hope, by reason of their strange means, had the
same result that the despair of the others had, either from their
misconceiving the things at first, or from their diffidence at the
last.
The causes why their plans did not take effect, and thus in part
hindered the thing, by making many think the case more desperate
than it really was, were these. The despair of those who thought
that the tongue was incapable of any direction, came of a wrong
cause, the fault arising indeed not from the thing which they
condemned as altogether rude and incapable of rule, but from the
parties themselves, who mistook their way. For the thing itself
will soon be put into order, though it requires some diligence and
careful consideration in him that must find it out. But when a
writer takes a wrong principle quite contrary to common practice,
where trial must be the touchstone, and practice must confirm the
means which he conceives, is it any marvel if the use of a tongue
resist such a means, which is not in conformity with it? From
this proceeded the despair of hitting aright, because they missed
their intention, whereas in reality they should have changed their
intention, in order to hit upon the right, which is in the thing
and will soon be found out, if it be rightly sought for.
Again, the hope of the others deceived them too quite as much.
For they did not consider that whereas common reason and common
custom have been long engaged in seeking out their own course,
they themselves will be councillors, and will never yield to any
private conception, which shall seem evidently either to force them
or cross them, in acting as they themselves do, never giving any
precept how to write correctly, till they have railed at custom
as a most pernicious enemy to truth and right, even in the things
where custom has most right, if it has right in any. Therefore when
they proceeded in an argument of custom, with the enmity of him
who is Lord of the soil, was it any wonder if they failed of their
purpose, and hindered the finding out of our correct writing, which
must needs be compassed by the consent of custom and the friendship
of reason? So in the meantime, while despair deceives the one,
and hope beguiles the other, the one missing his way, the other
making a foe, and both going astray, they both lose their labour,
and hinder the finding out of the best mode of writing, because the
true method of finding out such a thing has another course, as I
have shown before.
Yet notwithstanding all this, it is very manifest, that the tongue
itself has matter in it to furnish out an art, and that the same
means which has been used in reducing other tongues to their best
form, will serve this of ours, both for generality of precept and
for certainty of foundation, as may be easily proved on those four
grounds--the antiquity of our tongue, the people’s intelligence,
their learning, and their experience. For how can it be but that
a tongue which has continued for many hundreds of years not only
a tongue, but one of good account, both in speech and pen, should
have grown in all that time to some refinement and assurance of
itself, by so long and so general a use, the people that have used
it being none of the dullest, and labouring continually in all
exercises that concern learning, and in all practices that procure
experience, either in peace or in war, either in public or private,
either at home or abroad?