s at last positive disgust. This trick of
repetition reaches the climax of meaninglessness in "The Ways of the
Hour." During the trial scene the judge repeats on every pretext and as
a part of almost every speech, the sentence "time is precious;" and it
is about the only point on which he is represented as taking a clear and
decided stand.

There were other faults in the matter of language that to some (p. 273)
will seem far worse. I confess to feeling little admiration for that
grammar-school training which consists in teaching the pupil how much
more he knows about our tongue than the great masters who have moulded
it; which practically sets up the claim that the only men who are able
to write English properly are the men who have never shown any capacity
to write it at all; and which seeks, in a feeble way, to cramp usage by
setting up distinctions that never existed, and laying down rules which
it requires uncommon ignorance of the language to make or to heed. Still
there are lengths to which the most strenuous stickler for freedom of
speech does not venture to go. There are prejudices in favor of the
exclusive legitimacy of certain constructions that he feels bound to
respect. He recognizes, as a general rule, for instance, that when the
subject is in the singular it is desirable that the verb should be in
the same number. For conventionalities of syntax of this kind Cooper was
very apt to exhibit disregard, not to say disdain. He too often passed
the bounds that divide liberty from license. It scarcely needs to be
asserted that in most of these cases the violation of idiom arose from
haste or carelessness. But there were some blunders which can only be
imputed to pure unadulterated ignorance. He occasionally used words in
senses unknown to past or present use. He sometimes employed grammatical
forms that belong to no period in the history of the English language. A
curious illustration of a word combining in itself both these errors is
_wists_, a verb, in the third person, singular. If this be anything it
should be _wist_, the preterite of _wot_, and should have accordingly
the meaning "knew." Cooper uses it in fact as a present with the (p. 274)
sense of "wishes." Far worse than occasional errors in the use of words
are errors of construction. His sentences are sometimes involved in the
most hopeless way, and the efforts of grammar to untie the knot by any
means known to it serve only to make conspicuous its