age on the decline. But if it were not so, she is at too great a
distance to be our model, and to instruct us in the principles of our
own tongue.... Rapid changes of language proceed from violent causes,
but these causes cannot be supposed to exist in North America. It is
contrary to all rational calculation that the United States will ever
be conquered by any one nation speaking a different language from that
of the country. Removed from the danger of corruption by conquest, our
language can change only with the slow operation of the causes before
mentioned, and the progress of arts and sciences, unless the folly of
imitating our parent country should continue to govern us and lead us
into endless innovation. This folly, however, will lose its influence
gradually, as our particular habits of respect for that country shall
wear away, and our _amor patriae_ acquire strength, and inspire us with a
suitable respect for our own national character. We have, therefore, the
fairest opportunity of establishing a national language, and of giving
it uniformity and perspicuity in North America, that ever presented
itself to mankind."

His standard of pronunciation is thus defined: "The rules of the
language itself, and the general practice of the nation, constitute
propriety in speaking. If we examine the structure of any language we
shall find a certain principle of analogy running through the whole. We
shall find in English that similar combinations of letters have usually
the same pronunciation, and that words having the same terminating
syllable generally have the accent at the same distance from that
termination. These principles of analogy were not the result of design;
they must have been the effect of accident, or that tendency which all
men feel toward uniformity. But the principles, when established, are
productive of great convenience, and become an authority superior to the
arbitrary decisions of any man or class of men. There is one exception
only to this remark: When a deviation from analogy has become the
universal practice of a nation, it then takes place of all rules, and
becomes the standard of propriety. The two points, therefore, which I
conceive to be the basis of a standard in speaking are these: universal,
undisputed practice, and the principle of analogy. Universal practice is
generally, perhaps always, a rule of propriety; and in disputed points,
where people differ in opinion and practice, analogy should