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But language is a treacherous thing, a
most unsure vehicle, and it can seldom arrange descriptive words in such
a way that they will not inflate the facts -- by help of the reader's imagination,
which is always ready to take a hand and work for nothing, and do the bulk
of it at that. - Following the Equator |
| My sympathies are also with you in your desire & purpose to preserve
your native language in your American homes, & keep it alive in the
family along with our American tongue. My sympathies could not fail there,
for this movement of yours, so publicly & trustingly expressed, is a
high compliment to our free institutions. There are countries where it is
a punishable crime for the alien subject to use the speech that was born
to him, but in America we do not care what a man talks; for we know that
the sentiment back of the words will be American, every time -- & deep
& strong, too. - letter to an unidentified subject, 29 May 1892 |
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