PASSAGE

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is dent and our language–so the argument runs–must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electricht or handsome cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposs. Now it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not simply due to the bad influence of this or that individual Buter. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our ihoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modem English, especially written English, is fall of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits, one can think more cleadly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards polical regenerations so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.