4424. LANGUAGE, Purists and.—
I concur
entirely with you in opposition to purists, who would destroy all strength and beauty of
style, by subjecting it to a rigorous compliance
with their rules. Fill up all the ellipses and
syllepses of Tacitus, Sallust, Livy, &c., and the
elegance and force of their sententious brevity
are extinguished. “Auferre, trucidare, rapere,
falsis nominibus, imperium appellant”. “ Deorum
injurias, diis curæ”. “Alieni appetens,
sui profusus; ardens in cupiditatibus; satis
loquentiæ, sapientiæ parum”. “Annibal, peto
pacem”. “Per diem Sol non uret te, neque Luna
per noctem”. Wire-draw these expressions by
filling up the whole syntax and sense, and
they become dull paraphrases on rich sentiments.
We may say then truly with Quintilian,
“Aliud est Grammaticé, aliud Latiné loqui
”. I am no friend, therefore, to what is
called purism.—
To John Waldo. Washington ed. vi, 184.
(M.
1813)
