Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/179

 this process is continuous in all tongues; it is a natural order of evolution; but the evolution is paralleled by disorderly devolution. If the two processes were equal there could be no linguistic progress. Sometimes the one is stronger, sometimes the other; the broad view, however, gives us faith in the orderly process of evolution.

With due regard for the need of “new blood,” conservatism should moderate the force and limit the scope of innovation. For it is by virtue of conservatism that continuity is maintained between the earlier and the later forms of expression, especially be tween the older and the newer meanings of words. This applies not only to words but to forms of construction and rules of grammar: all must be modified with etxremeextreme [sic] caution, else tradition, intellectual and historic resource, may be harmed.

The gist of the purity of a tongue lies not so much in the restriction of foreign words, or in the reservation with which new meanings