The Glory of English Prose

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Title: The Glory of English Prose
Letters to My Grandson
Author: Stephen Coleridge
Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #13785]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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The Glory of English Prose
Letters to my Grandson
[Illustration: STEPHEN COLERIDGE
FROM THE PORTRAIT
BY BERNARD PARTRIDGE IN THE POSSESSION
OF THE
MESS OF THE SOUTH WALES CIRCUIT]
The Glory of English Prose
Letters to My Grandson
By
The Hon. Stephen Coleridge
"The chief glory of every people arises from its authors"
Dr. Johnson

G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker
Press
1922
1922
by
Stephen Coleridge
Made in the United States of America
PREFACE
If you have read, gentle reader, the earlier series of _Letters to my
Grandson on the World about Him_, you are to understand that in the
interval between those letters and these, Antony has grown to be a boy
in the sixth form of his public school.
It has not been any longer necessary therefore to study an extreme
simplicity of diction in these letters.
My desire has been to lead him into the most glorious company in the
world, in the hope that, having early made friends with the noblest of
human aristocracy, he will never afterwards admit to his affection and
intimacy anything mean or vulgar.
Many young people who, like Antony, are not at all averse from the
study of English writers, stand aghast at the vastness of the what seems
so gigantic an enterprise.
In these letters I have acted as pilot for a first voyage through what is to
a boy an uncharted sea, after which I hope and believe he will have
learned happily to steer for himself among the islands of the blest.
S.C.
THE FORD,
CHOBHAM.
CONTENTS
0. ON GOOD AND BAD STYLE IN PROSE
0. ON THE GLORY OF THE BIBLE
0. SIR WALTER RALEIGH
0. ACT OF PARLIAMENT, 1532

0. THE JUDICIOUS HOOKER AND SHAKESPEARE
0. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE CREWE
0. SIR THOMAS BROWNE AND MILTON
0. JEREMY TAYLOR
0. EVELYN'S DIARY
0. JOHN BUNYAN
0. DR. JOHNSON
0. EDMUND BURKE
0. GIBBON
0. HENRY GRATTAN AND MACAULAY
0. LORD ERSKINE
0. ROBERT HALL
0. LORD PLUNKET
0. ROBERT SOUTHEY
0. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
0. LORD BROUGHAM
0. SIR WILLIAM NAPIER
0. RICHARD SHEIL
0. THOMAS CARLYLE
0. HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE
0. CARDINAL NEWMAN
0. LORD MACAULAY AGAIN
0. PRESIDENT LINCOLN
0. JOHN RUSKIN
0. JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
0. MATTHEW ARNOLD
0. SIR WILLIAM BUTLER
0. LORD MORLEY
0. HILAIRE BELLOC
0. KING GEORGE THE FIFTH
0. CONCLUSION
LETTERS TO MY GRANDSON
1
MY DEAR ANTONY,

The letters which I wrote "On the world about you" having shown you
that throughout all the universe, from the blazing orbs in infinite space
to the tiny muscles of an insect's wing, perfect design is everywhere
manifest, I hope and trust that you will never believe that so
magnificent a process and order can be without a Mind of which it is
the visible expression.
The chief object of those letters was to endorse your natural feeling of
reverence for the Great First Cause of all things, with the testimony of
your reason; and to save you from ever allowing knowledge of how the
sap rises in its stalk to lessen your wonder at and admiration of the
loveliness of a flower.
I am now going to write to you about the literature of England and
show you, if I can, the immense gulf that divides distinguished writing
and speech from vulgar writing and speech.
There is nothing so vulgar as an ignorant use of your own language.
Every Englishman should show that he respects and honours the
glorious language of his country, and will not willingly degrade it with
his own pen or tongue.
"We have long preserved our constitution," said Dr. Johnson; "let us
make some struggles for our language."
There is no need to be priggish or fantastic in our choice of words or
phrases.
Simple old words are just as good as any that can be selected, if you
use them in their proper sense and place.
By reading good prose constantly your ear will come to know the
harmony of language, and you will find that your taste will unerringly
tell you what is good and what is bad in style, without your being able
to explain even to yourself the precise quality that distinguishes the
good from the bad.