8.  Unlearned men, who neither make, nor can make, any pretensions to a knowledge of grammar as a study, if they show themselves modest in what they profess, are by no means to be despised or undervalued for the want of such knowledge.  They are subject to no criticism, till they turn authors and write for the public.  And even then they are to be treated gently, if they have any thing to communicate, which is worthy to be accepted in a homely dress.  Grammatical inaccuracies are to be kindly excused, in all those from whom nothing better can be expected; for people are often under a necessity of appearing as speakers or writers, before they can have learned to write or speak grammatically.  The body is more to be regarded than raiment; and the substance of an interesting message, may make the manner of it a little thing.  Men of high purposes naturally spurn all that is comparatively low; or all that may seem nice, overwrought, ostentatious, or finical.  Hence St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, suggests that the design of his preaching might have been defeated, had he affected the orator, and turned his attention to mere “excellency of speech,” or “wisdom of words.”  But this view of things presents no more ground for neglecting grammar, and making coarse and vulgar example our model of speech, than for neglecting dress, and making baize and rags the fashionable costume.  The same apostle exhorts Timothy to “hold fast the form of sound words,” which he himself had taught him.  Nor can it be denied that there is an obligation resting upon all men, to use speech fairly and understandingly.  But let it be remembered, that all those upon whose opinions or practices I am disposed to animadvert, are either professed grammarians and philosophers, or authors who, by extraordinary pretensions, have laid themselves under special obligations to be accurate in the use of language.  “The wise in heart shall be called prudent; and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.”—­Prov., xvi, 21.  “The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom [is] as a flowing brook.”—­Ib., xviii, 4.  “A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.”—­Ib., xviii, 7.

9.  The old maxim recorded by Bacon, “Loquendum ut vulgus, sentiendum ut sapientes,”—­“We should speak as the vulgar, but think as the wise,” is not to be taken without some limitation.  For whoever literally speaks as the vulgar, shall offend vastly too much with his tongue, to have either the understanding of the wise or the purity of the good.  In all untrained and vulgar minds, the ambition of speaking well is but a dormant or very weak principle.  Hence the great mass of uneducated people are lamentably careless of what they utter, both as to the matter and the manner; and no few seem naturally prone to the constant imitation of low example, and some, to the practice of every abuse of which language is susceptible.  Hence, as every scholar knows, the least scrupulous of our lexicographers notice many terms but to censure them as “low,” and omit many more as being beneath their notice.  Vulgarity of language, then, ever has been, and ever must be, repudiated by grammarians.  Yet we have had pretenders to grammar, who could court the favour of the vulgar, though at the expense of all the daughters of Mnemosyne.