Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1919 — Great Advance With More Unity Has Been Made in Grammar and Spelling [ARTICLE]

Great Advance With More Unity Has Been Made in Grammar and Spelling

Tn the days" of Chaucer there were undoubtedly differences among writers which made their grammar and spelling seem singular to us; yet erode though they were, the art of literary composition was well advanced. That, however, says the Christian Herald, was not the greatest age; It came in the Elizabethan period; and while the literary peculiarities of Shakespeare’s style were strongly defined, it could not be said in any sense that they re* vealed lack of knowledge in either grammar or spelling, the standards of that day being suited to the culture of the time. And a great advance had been made over the days of Chaucer. In the days of Addison, Johnson, Swift, Congreve and Goldsmith, we find a great advance with more unity in both grammar and spelling. The authorised version of the Bible in the line of Hterqrv workmanship noted the greatest advance of all, and reached a point which has not been surpassed if, indeed, equaled. There was a certain latitude in spelling, it is true, to which we today look back with interested curiosity ; but even that was not the result of ignorance, but rather of custom, which allowed the latitude, and it was in no sense a literary disfigurement.