CONTINUOUS SPEECH 77

he brought back and placed immediately before the relative
pronouns to which they referred; and, ever since, the pedant
has followed his example, regardless of circumstances. But as
the philologist, Sayce, wrote, "The attempt to find the distinc-
tions of Latin grammar in that of English has only resulted in
gross errors and a total misapprehension of the language."

Other examples of expressions finding popular favour which
are due to a greater knowledge of Latin than of English are to
say averse from instead of averse to, different from and not different
to, and in the circumstances instead of under the circumstances. It is
also commoner than it was to bring together the parts of a com-
pound verb—e.g., bring in, take off, put out, etc., which have a
single word corresponding to them in some foreign language, so
that an English construction like Take your hat extends to become
Frenchified into Take off your hat.

• Another result of the spread of this kind of influence is that
idioms which fail to pass the test of the grammatical purist are
being frowned on. To say, for instance, / thought to myself is
apparently open to objection, because to myself is quite unneces-
sary. / believe, personally, is equally faulty, since there is no other
way of believing except personally. Again, hence, thence, and
whence have been declared to be equivalent to from here, from
there, and from where; so that Edmund Gosse was able to object
to Siegfried Sassoon writing from whence, though, as the Oxford
English Dictionary shows, Wycliffe and Pope used the expres-
sion as good English long before it became suspect by the
grammarians.

Nevertheless, the constant analysis which a living language
undergoes by those who use it cannot but improve it as an instru-
ment of precision, and this process of analysis is a process which
cannot in the long run be checked.

. 14. THE INFLUENCE OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
ON SPEECH
Another powerful influence has also been at work. The effect
of education upon the children who have passed through the
public elementary schools has frequently been unfortunate
until recently. In many districts there has been so marked a
difference between the standard English taught in the schools
and the dialect acquired outside that large numbers of children
have grown up with the notion that there are two kinds of Eng-
lish, one good, the other bad, the latter being what they are
accustomed to hear at home and in the streets. The London
child who finds it second nature, for example, to use such forms