Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/123

Rh social duties require. It is to this feeling that the habit has arisen of making cautious and evasive answers, such as "I guess," "I conclude," "I some think," "I shouldn't wonder, if such a man had said so and so," when the speaker is the whole time confident of the fact. This practice has the reproach of insincerity and equivocation, is discreditable, makes intercourse treacherous and unsafe, and is beneath the frankness of freemen. In all these respects, a majority of the American people might take a useful lesson from the habits of England, a country which though remarkable for servility to superiors, can boast of more frankness in ordinary life, than our own.

Candor has the high merit of preventing misconceptions, simplifies intercourse, prevents more misunderstandings than equivocation, elevates character, inculcates the habit of sincerity, and has a general tendency to the manly and virtuous qualities.

ON LANGUAGE.

Language being the medium of thought, its use enters into our most familiar practices. A just, clear and simple expression of our ideas is a necessary accomplishment for all who aspire to be classed with gentlemen and ladies. It renders all more respectable, besides making intercourse more intelligible, safer and more agreeable.

The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms. To these may be added ambiguity of expression. Many perversions of significations also