Men may never wholly shake off a
vice but they are always conscious of it, and hate the tempter.
[24] Dedication of Georgics.
[25] In a letter to Dennis, 1693.
[26] Preface to Fables.
[27] More than half a century later, Orrery, in his "Remarks" on
Swift, says: "We speak and we write at random; and if a man's common
conversation were committed to paper, he would be startled _for_ _to_
find himself guilty in _so few_ sentences of so many solecisms and
such false English." I do not remember _for to_ anywhere in Dryden's
prose. _So few_ has long been denizened; no wonder, since it is
nothing more than _si peu_ Anglicized.
[28] Letter to the Lord High Treasurer.
[29] Ibid. He complains of "manglings and abbreviations." "What does
your Lordship think of the words drudg'd, disturb'd, rebuk'd,
fledg'd, and a thousand others?" In a contribution to the "Tatler"
(No. 230) he ridicules the use of _'um_ for _them_, and a number of
slang Footnote: phrases, among which is _mob_. "The war," he says,
"has introduced abundance of polysyllables, which will never be able
to live many more campaigns." _Speculations, operations,
preliminaries, ambassadors, pallisadoes, communication,
circumvallation, battalions_, are the instances he gives, and all are
now familiar.
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