sten to a mathematician, a chemist, etc. but the man
of letters, the lecturer, has the world at his feet."[3208]--Under such
a strong pressure the mind necessarily follows a literary and verbal
route in conformity with the exigencies, the proprieties, the tastes,
and the degree of attention and of instruction of its public.[3209]
Hence the classic mold,--formed out of the habit of speaking, writing
and thinking for a drawing room audience.[3210]

This is immediately evident in its style and language. Between Amyot,
Rabelais and Montaigne on the one hand, and Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo
and Honore de Balzac on the other, classic French comes into being and
dies. From the very first it is described at the language of "honest
people." It is fashioned not merely for them, but by them, and
Vaugelas,[3211] their secretary, devotes himself for thirty years to
the registry of decisions according to the usages only of good society.
Hence, throughout, both in vocabulary and in grammar, the language
is refashioned over and over again, according to the cast of their
intellects, which is the prevailing intellect.--

In the first place the vocabulary is diminished:

* Most of the words specially employed on erudite and technical
subjects, expressions that are too Greek or too Latin, terms peculiar to
the schools, to science, to occupations, to the household, are excluded
from discourse;

* those too closely denoting a particular occupation or profession are
not considered proper in general conversation.

* A vast number of picturesque and expressive words are dropped, all
that are crude, gaulois or naifs, all that are local and provincial, or
personal and made-up, all familiar and proverbial locutions,[3212] many
brusque, familiar and frank turns of thought, every haphazard, telling
metaphor, almost every description of impulsive and dexterous utterance
throwing a flash of light into the imagination and bringing into
view the precise, colored and complete form, but of which a too vivid
impression would run counter to the proprieties of polite conversation.

"One improper word," said Vaugelas, "is all that is necessary to bring a
person in society into contempt,"

and, on the eve of the Revolution, an objectionable term denounced by
Madame de Luxembourg still consigns a man to the rank of
"especes," because correct expression is ever an element of good
manners.--Language, through this constant scratching, is attenuated and
beco