Excerpt from Congress of Arts and Science, Universal Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, Vol. 3
It is only within comparatively recent times that the principles which underlie the development of language have been clearly understood. By those who went before us speech was usually regarded, not as an emanation from us, not as an expression of us, but as something outside of us, a sort of mechanism with which we had to do; which was sometimes good, sometimes bad, but having largely an independent life of its own. Hence it could improve or degenerate without much regard to the character or attainments of those who spoke it. All that it behoved these to do was to improve it, and so far as that could be done, perfect it. When that happy result was reached care was to be taken that no further changes were to be made in it; but preserved as much as possible unimpaired, be transmitted to posterity, and so continue the length of years it was permitted to live.
For along with this belief existed another. Every language, it was supposed, went through the same sort of experience as the individuals to whom it was a possession. It had its period of birth, of growth, and of maturity. Then followed the inevitable decay. This could be retarded, but it could not be averted. The generally accepted view was expressed by Dr. Johnson in the preface to his dictionary.
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