Page:Tex; a chapter in the life of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (IA texchapterinlife00mcke).pdf/115



''no adjectives whatever. The Italians, Norwegians and Swedes have no capitals to their adjectives; the Dutch are gradually discarding them; they are discarded entirely in scientists' Latin: the Narbonne Lycosa (a certain spider of the Tarantula genus) in Latin becomes Lycosa narbonniensis''

''Your question about "high mass" is, involuntarily, not quite fair. Mass quite conceivably comes within the category of such words as State and a few others, which are spelt with a capital in one sense and not in another. I write "going to mass" (no French catholic would write "allant à la Messe!") and I see no reason why catholics should write Mass except in a technical work. They would write "the Host" because of the real presence; but I see no more reason for the Mass than for Matins or Compline. Obviously, it is different in a technical work in translating Fabre, I speak of a Wasp, a Spider, a Beetle; in translating Couperus, I do not''

''"The Colonel, the Major, the Vicar," in a novel; don't they set your teeth on edge? As well write about the Postmistress of the village.''

When in doubt, as I wrote to you on the subject of the hyphenated nouns, take little Murray