XVIII. XIII. THE MORALS OF GOOD ENGLISH XV. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF ENGLISH I NATURE AND NURTURE "WHY should I study English?" objected a rebellious youth, “I know English. I am English.” But not everyone who is English really knows English, nor is knowing all of the same kind. A professional ball player may know how to pitch a curve. A physicist may know the same thing, but he will know it in quite a different way. His way of knowing will be better, for though he may not be able to pitch a curve as well, yet other things being equal, if he spent as much time in practice as the professional player, in all likelihood he could pitch a better curve. In other words, analytic knowledge is an aid and support to experimental knowledge. Such at least is the conviction with which this book on the English language has been written. In the courtly debates of other days it was a common subject for disputation whether man derived more from birth or from training, from nature or from nurture. The youth who has just been quoted evidently assumed that his English came to him as a perfect gift of nature. But of course no one is born in possession of the English language, or of any other language. Every normal person is born with the necessary organs, lungs, vocal chords, tongue, lips, and prospectively teeth, which make the acquisition of language possible. Language itself, however, is not a natural gift, but even in its rudimentary forms it is an acquired accomplishment. Without training and |