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New Zealand Tablet, 1 August 1918, Page 26

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English and Science Is it because we have a traditional respect for the classics, a sort of rudimentary remnant from the days when the people were kept in ignorance as far as possible by the ruling classes of England, that we have not as a rule any English equivalents for new scientific terms, and that we are driven to the Greek or to the Latin, or to an awful medley of both when we want to express ourselves ? The superior genius of the. Celts has found Celtic terms for such words as telephone and telegraph, whereas beyond the word “wireless” the English seem helpless. The Germans call a bicycle a tret rad , and a cyclist a Had fain rr, while a telephone is a Ft-raxprechrr and a submarine an U nter-See-Boot. In the same way, either because we have no philosophers worth talking about or because the language has not the power of expression a student of philosophy reading an English translation is either thrown back on foreign words or else puzzled by ambiguous English words which leave him struggling with their meaning in a given context when a reader in another language would have gone pages ahead. For instance, in a translation of a French study of German philosophy we came upon the word “feeling” in a context where its obvious meaning would be sheer nonsense. Yet sensation is another word that owing to inexact habits of expression would also be misleading, as it may mean anything from the activity of the senses to a railway sandwich. Weighing: our Words Cardinal Newman pays a tribute to the bigoted Archbishop Whately of proselytising notoriety when he tells us in the .1 polngia that it was from him he first learned to weigh his words carefully and not use them lightly. Due attention to the exact shade of meaning is one of Newman’s chief perfections, and it is a quality that one may acquire from theworks of the great Cardinal better perhaps than from any other English writer. Reading the newspapers and most modern books has a tendency to- make one careless in this respect. and it is a good rule to pull oneself up now and then and get back to one of the old books, such as the Grammar of Arxenf or Butler’s Analogy, just as one goes back to the Bible, or to Addison or Shakespere, for a draught of pure English undefiled. Hurried writing and hurried reading inevitably have a bad effect. Pope Leo XIII. used to lay aside his great Encyclicals for weeks after writing them, so that he might come to re-read and correct them with, as it were, the old forms of expression erased from his mind. Most people will be able to see faults in a piece of their own composition a month after writing, which they could not see there a day or two after. And we may take it as a general rule that we can write nothing offhand in which we could not discover many faults later. Therefore the more one writes and the easier it conies the greater need for vigilance against inexactness and obscurity. Style is a thing that can be taught to no man and that no man can teach ; but everyone can learn to write well enough if clearness and directness are steadily kept in view and unnecessary terms and phrases avoided as the plague.

“And” Once or twice recently we have heard discussions as to the propriety of using the word “and” at the beginning of sentences and paragraphs. It has been alleged that to use it thus is a fault in style : and again, that it is a sign of pedantry. It does not seem to be either the one or the other as a matter of fact. We used to read years ago that a conjunction is a word that joins words, clauses, and sentences together. So that as far as grammar goes “and” is safe and in possession. If we leave the grammar behind, as is the fashion nowadays, our only appeal is to the usage of standard writers. Here the opinions of all parties may find support. Some avoid “and” at the beginning of sentences and paragraphs, and some do not. We all know that its use is sanctioned by the Bible on every page. So careful' and so exact a writer as Newman uses it frequently, even in such a carefully revised work as his Universit;/ Lecture*. The custom of most good writers of our day warrants it. On the whole there is so much in favor of it, as well as grammatical authority, that the boot seems to be on the other foot as far as the charge of pedantry is concerned. We endorse “and” taken in moderation. Gilbert White In the quiet backwaters of the main stream of every literature there are found a few modest little books which through their sheer humanity and their sincerity have outlived many more pretentious works which the stream has hurried to oblivion. The stray thoughts of Seneca or Boethius, the letters of Cicero to his friends, the Floretfi, the Imitation, belong to the class of which we speak : and one need but ponder on the names to realise that such books are among the perennial favorites of mankind. In English literature we have in Gilbert White’s .\<'(nnil Jlistnri/ of Setborne such a book. It is only a series of letters written to Pennant and Dailies Barrington, in which the author chats pleasantly of the phenomena of animal and vegetable life, of the scenery and the weather, gracefully and kindly, out of a rare fulness of knowledge of his subject. But the collection of letters forms one of the most delightful little books in any literature, and a valuable contribution to science as well as to letters. The pages are illuminated by many apt gems from the classics, which, apart altogether from the literary qualities of the work, prove that White was a man of wide reading and culture. Take the following passage about echoes: “Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or outlet a pleasing incident he might build one at little or no expense. For whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable, dog-kennel, or the like structure, it would be only needful to erect this building on the gentle declivity of an hill, with a like rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards distance ; and perhaps success might be the easier ensured could some canal, lake, or stream intervene. From a seat at the centrum phanirnw he and his friends might amuse themselves sometimes of an evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose complacency and decent reserve more may be said than can with truth of every individual of her sex; since she is—quae nee. reticerc laqnenti, Nec prior ipsa loqui didicit resonahilis echo." On Snow The author’s remarks on snow are not inapposite even in our clime at the present time, when the snow remains with us still, even though, “like an army defeated,” it has retired to the hills and deep valleys, where the forces of the sun are at a disadvantage: “For the last two or three days . . . there were considerable falls of snow, which lay deep on the ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more humble vegetation in perfect security. From the first day to the fifth of the new year more snow succeeded, but from that day the air became entirely clear; and the heat of the sun about noon had a considerable influence

in sheltered situations. It was in such an aspect that the snow on the author’s evergreens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night; so that the laurestines, bays, laurels, and arbutus looked, in three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire ; while a neighbor’s plantation of the same kind, in a high, cold situation, where the snow was never melted, remained uninjured.” Then comes the philosopher ’ and the observer: “From thence I would infer that it is the repeated melting and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather than the severity of the cold.” - J Why the Germans are Hard to Beat Ihe following excerpts from occasional cables may give thinking people some notion of the immense recuperative powers of our enemies : Monday. —lt is reported that General von Hindenburg is dead. Tuesday.— A further report states that von Ilindenburg died after an interview with the Kaiser. Wednesday.-Von Hindenburg got a fit after meeting the Kaiser. Thursday. —The Germans will be hard put to it to find a general to replace von Hindenburg. Friday.—Von .Hindenburg holds Ludendorf responsible for the failure of the last offensive. Saturday.— Von Hindenburg is in perfect health! How can. ordinary mortals be expected to stand up lo men with nine lives—or with ninety-nine, like the Crown Prince? Henceforth the press ought to make <■> rule that when a man has been dead three times ho will be disqualified for life.