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BOOK III, CHAPTER V 45

should not have dared to trust myself to a form of speech which I could not turn or twist out of its usual course. I wish to do with it something personal.

Language gains in value not so much by being handled and used by vigorous minds, not so much from innovations, as by being put to more forcible and various service, stretch- ing it and bending it; they do not bring words to it but they enrich those they use; they give weight and force to their signification and their use, teaching the language unwonted action, but discreetly and dexterously. But how little this agility is given to all men is seen in so many French writers of this They are bold enough and scornful enough not to folloy jow the common path; but lack of invention and discretion is their undoing. There is seen in them only a miserable affectation of singularity, feeble and absurd dis- simulations which, instead of uplifting, debase the subject. Provided they can pride themselves on novelty, they care nothing for its effectiveness; to lay hold of a new word, they forsake the usual one, often stronger and more pithy.

I find material enough in our language, but some failure in fashioning it, for there is nothing that might not be done with the terms of hunting and of war, which is a fruitful soil to borrow from; and forms of speech, like plants, are im- proved and strengthened by transplanting. I find it suffi- ciently copious, but not sufficiently pliable and vigorous; it usually succumbs under a powerful conception. If you are hard pressed,! you often perceive that it weakens and bends beneath you, and that in its default the Latin comes to your aid, and to others Greek. Of some of these words which I have just selected we perceive the force with greater diffi- culty because usage and familiarity have in some sort cheapened their charm to us and made it commonplace; as in our ordinary speech, there are to be found excellent phrases and metaphors of which the beauty withers with age and the colour is tarnished by too general handling. But this takes nothing from their relish for those who have good perceptions,? nor does it lessen the glory of those an- cient authors who, it is probable, first used these words with brilliancy.

1 Si vous allez tendu. ? Qui ont bon nex.

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