CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 77, 1 April 1871, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

*•* T^e are dchiroiid of nfl'oi'dinu over}' repsonivblc facility- for the discussion of jiiil/lic subject h; but it inusr. be undurHtoorl tliat we an; hi no way responsible lor the opinions expressed by corresijouiients. To the Editor ov the Nelson Evening Nail. Sir. — As I find that certain inconveniences attend the gratification of my harmless thirst for knowledge in the ' columns of your contemporary, the Colonist, who has — anil exercises — the power of disfiguring my queries with little stars that illustrate nothing, with daggers innocent of point, and with foot-notes that only make darkness visible ; you will, perhaps, permit me to explain my own meaning without appending any of those editorial glosses, which, however instructive they may be to the public, are somewhat embarrassing to a correspondent. Premising that I utterly decline (o be bound by the dicta of the enterprising, but half-taught, Yankee who compiled Webster's Dictionary, I v/ill proceed by way of postulate (supposititious, if you like) and hypothesis. Ist. Let it be conceded at the outset, (hat even able Editors are not very clear, occasionally, as to the proper application of terms used by mathematicians and Im^^ cians. V^r 2nd. If an able' Editor, as above, vreref to make use of the term postulate when hypothesis was evidently meant, and were to aggravate liis offence by adding theroeaningless epithet siipposititiai^, would ifc be unreasonable to conjecture lW he had forgotten the right word, and had ingeniously substituted the first two indigestible expressions that occurred to him, with a sublime, and not altogether ill-fouuded confidence in. the ignorance of the public ? For the chances would be that of the score or so of his readers who could have fouud him out, nineteen, after a glance at the wonderful heading of his article, would throw down the paper at once. The resf, ex hypoihesi he need .not care about. Again, let it be granted, (or postulated) that an able editor knows nothing of the classics, and indeed, is at no pains to disguise his contempt for those who have the slightest acquaintance with "the roots and the tone." Then if lie has occasion to use the word " servitor," about which he has no doubts, what more likely than that he should write i: Cincinuaior," under the natural impression that it is now the fashion to make all Latin nouns end in or, a reform that would bo hailed with delight by boys who are learning, and by elderly gentlemen who have forgotten their declensions, and which is opeu to to the single insignificant objection that the form of the Latin language has been fixed some centuries ago. I am somewhat confirmed in my Ciucinnator theory by an article, obviously from the pen of the same brilliaut reformer, containing the remarkable phrase, "' these flora of literature," the Goddess of Blowers being made plural, evidently in strict conformity with a theory that all Latin nouus should in future form a in the plural. Surely these repeated bids for the eupporfc of grateful scholars entitle the ■ Colonist to be known henceforth as " The Boys own Book." I am, &c, Axglo-Sa;:on.