Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/324

 such cases one should sacrifice brevity in favour of the "I hope you may obtain it style," (i. e. the feminine of "I wish you may get it,") and say, you will be thrown down or hurt by a buffalo's running against you. The rules of female education, both of the governess and of after life, prevent a lady's knowing whether such an out-of-door animal as a buffalo attacks people with his head or tail, and a lady should betray no nearer acquaintance with the horrible creature than that implied in the form of speech above appointed for adoption. Our language affords a table-land of communication between lady and gentleman, where the technical difficulties on either side the hill are out of sight. If the lady is to speak of a fashion she will leave out scientific terms, as will the gentleman if he is talking of a race; and I see no objection to the language of the man and woman being exactly similar. Any affectation, such as extreme delicacy and timidity, is vulgar, and suited to novel-reading ladies' maids and milliners' apprentices. Every term or word turned from its common and general meaning to a particular meaning, is what I consider technical. Such are not only words employed in any art or science in a sense differing from their common acceptation, but, also, such words used in an uncommon sense by a particular set of people, schoolboys, or fashionables. To "cut over with a stone" is a school expression, which of course cannot be referred to the general meaning of the words. Any thing being in good or bad taste is a technicality of good society. Some expressions of this nature, when original, are rather to be considered as bon-mots. Such as Sydney Smith's saying that a clergyman next him at dinner had a ten-parson power of boring. To make use of French words, unless cleverly selected, comes under my ban, but the practice of good society is against me, I believe, in this. A schoolboy's word like that of "being knocked over," can be used with very good effect in fun. A lady may talk to a man of having a lark, or use any such word,—but it must not be used as her own word, but as if she were to say, "as you would call it." I will give the rest of this essay another time, for fear of knocking over the patience of the dear ones around the hearth of my childhood's home.