When I consented to write this inaugural paper, I knew that my first
duty would be to set an example of the attitude which the Society had
proposed to take and hopes to maintain.
This Society was called into existence by the widespread interest
in linguistic subjects which is growing on the public, and by the
lamentable lack of any organized means for focussing opinion. It
responds to that interest, and would supply that want.[30] There is no
doubt that public opinion is altogether at sea in these matters, and
its futility is betrayed and encouraged by the amateurish discussions
and _obiter dicta_ that are constantly appearing and reappearing
in the newspapers. Our belief is that if facts and principles were
clearly stated and thoroughly handled by experts, it would then be
possible not only to utilize this impulse and gratify a wholesome
appetite, but even to attract and organize a consensus of sound
opinion which might influence and determine the practice of our best
writers and speakers.
[Footnote 30: Neither the British Academy nor the Academic Committee
of the Royal Society of Literature has shown any tendency to recognize
their duties and responsibilities in this department.]
The Society absolutely repudiates the assumption of any sort of
Academic authority or orthodoxy; it relies merely on statement of
fact and free expression of educated opinion to assure the verdict of
common sense; and it may illustrate this method to recapitulate the
various special questions that have arisen from following it in this
particular discussion concerning English homophones.