The arguments of Mr. Prettiman are in too violent and petulant a language for insertion. I cannot consent to fill my papers with the complaints, however well founded, of Prettiman versus Goodiman Q. No. XIII. FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1816. Vitiis nemo sine nascitur: optumus ille HORACE. : I HAVE lately had occasion to mention the impropriety of using Westminster terms beyond their proper limits, and the disgust which is excited by so doing this indeed was the more necessary, as the Caco-logo-mania, and Caco-phoni-mania has so rapidly increased, that if a boy was accidentally to stay at home for a year, he would, I am confident, find upon his return, an entire new language in existence among his school-fellows: for my own part it is often with great difficulty that I can understand those who are peculiarly addicted to this kind of conversation, though frequently in the habit of talking with them. Whether my readers may think fit to account for this fashion, by supposing that parents are at present more fond of sending their children to private schools, the great nurseries of all cant terms than formerly, and thus there is a continual influx from all quarters of these terms, or whether it is more probable that the coarseness of the words in use among their predecessors has offended the present generation, or that the old phrases were become so common, as to be adopted even by the Skies, or that they have introduced this reformation for the sake of novelty, I am convinced that the transition from one set of words to another, was never so rapidly carried on, or so effectually performed as lately, from this circumstance, namely, that as far as I know of the terms which were in use thirty or forty years ago, I find them much more similar to those that existed when I first came to school, and therefore much more intelligible than the present terms. I must not here omit remarking, that although among the Town-boys the phrases are in general alike, there is some distinction observable between the languages of the five Boarding Houses; and if I might compare small things with great, I would use the language of our grammar,"Distat communi Dialectus quintupla linguæ." After the acknowledgement I have made of my ignorance with regard to these languages, no one can expect me to attempt the office of Grammarian, or to point out the several distinctions. I have hitherto spoken exclusively of the Town-boys, for the above observations will not apply to most part of College, who certainly are not at all subject to this Mania, on the contrary they have rather an abhorrence to it: but, if they are free from this failing, they are by no means more intelligible than their other school-fellows : they abound with parables and obscure allusions, chiefly to theatrical incidents. They frequently give their observations and answers in theatrical language, from Othello and Hamlet, down to a Harlequin Farce or Representation at Astley's. This, however, is in some sense unquestionably honourable to them, as it shows a love of reading of some sort or other at least, and an intimate acquaintance with the Drama. Each of these allusions has in general for a certain time its run, and is in every body's mouth till some happier thought succeeds and obliterates it from the memory of its worshippers. There is no doubt but that this latter method of conversation is much more useful as well as learned than the alteration of language which has been introduced by the coinage of new words; for although mixed with much dross, it serves to imprint on the memory many celebrated passages of our best authors, and I will venture to say has been the source of much information as well as amusement. |