Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/144

 This illuminates the law and, in a way, it accounts for slang.

Thus is language subject to transformation; and each transformation is the result of new forms supplanting the old. The process is not uniform. Parts of speech which embarrass the tongues of the many, persist for a time in serving the tongues of the few; in time these parts perish as other forms more easily slip into their places. The newer forms usually do not at once rise to the dignity of those supplanted; but time and usage beautify many which, fathering others, disappear. This continual process is called the evolution of language. Slang is a strong element in the process.

As the servant of man, language has acquired a large part of his moral possessions as well as a stewardship of the most precious of his material property. Slowly through many centuries, language has assumed this power and made these acquisitions. The study of language must include, therefore, something