Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/364

Rh but still well understood of the common folk? A preacher has been known to translate, ‘we cannot always stand upright,’ into ‘we cannot always maintain an erect posi&shy;tion.’ Who can make anything out of the rubbish that follows, ‘a system thus hypothetically elaborated is after all but an inexplicable concatenation of hyperbolical in&shy;congruity?’ This reads like Dr. Johnson run mad; no wonder that Dissent has become rife in the land. If we wish to know the cause of the bad style employed in preaching by too many of the Anglican clergy, we must ask how they have been taught at our Schools and Uni&shy;versities. Much heed is there bestowed on Latin and Greek, but none on English. What a change might be wrought in our pulpits if lads at public schools were given some knowledge of our great writers from Chaucer and Wickliffe downwards, instead of wasting so much time on Latin verses, that do no good in after life to three-fourths of the students! A lad of average wit only needs sound English models to be set before him, and he will teach himself much. What good service might