earn a few cases, and hawk them as evidences of erudition. They are
miserably mistaken: scholarship, as a rule, {323} always accepts the
vernacular form of a name which has vernacular celebrity. Hallam writes
Behmen: his index-maker, rather superfluously, gives "_Behmen_ or Boehm."
And he retains Melanchthon,[601] the name given by Reuchlin[602] to his
little kinsman Schwartzerd, because the world has adopted it: but he will
none of Capnio, the name which Reuchlin fitted on to himself, because the
world has not adopted it. He calls the old forms pedantry: but he sees that
the rejection of well-established results of pedantry would be greater
pedantry still. The paradoxers assume the question that it is more
_correct_ to sound a man by lame imitation of his own countrymen than as
usual in the country in which the sound is to be made. Against them are,
first, the world at large; next, an overpowering majority of those who know
something about surnames and their history. Some thirty years ago--a
fact--there appeared at the police-office a complainant who found his own
law. In the course of his argument, he asked, "What does Kitty
say?"--"Who's Kitty?" said the magistrate, "your wife, or your
nurse?"--"Sir! I mean Kitty, the celebrated lawyer."--"Oh!" said the
magistrate, "I suspect you mean Mr. Chitty,[603] the author of the great
work on pleading."--"I do sir! But Chitty is an Italian name, and ought to
be pronounced _Kitty_." This man was a full-blown flower: but there is many
a modest bud; and all ought either to blush when seen or to waste their
pronunciation on the desert air.

{324}

A PLEA FOR KING CUSTOM.

I stand up for King Custom, or _Usus_, as Horace called him, with whom is
_arbitrium_ the decision, and _jus_ the right, and _norma_ the way of
deciding, simply because he has _potestas_ the power. He may admit one and
another principle to advise: but Custom is not a constitutional king; he
may listen to his cabinet, but he decides for himself: and if the ministry
should resign, he blesses his stars and does without them. We have a
glorious liberty in England of owning neither dictionary, grammar, nor
spelling-book: as many as choose write by either of the three, and decide
all disputed points their own way, those following them who please.

Throughout this book I have called people by the names which denote them in
their books, or by our vernacular names. This is the intelligible way of
proceeding. I migh