96
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. m. FEB. 4, isos.
or Milton, those supreme masters of our
tongue, nor, I venture to say, in Keats,
Tennyson, or Swinburne. There are those
who will say " the custom is a bad one "
instead of " the custom is bad." The latter
phrase, I hold, is vigorous English, the former
flabbiness and superfluity. The split infini-
tive and the use of "a one "will, I think,
be discountenanced by all who regard what
Daniel calls " the treasure of our tongue."
MARO.
Surely the discussion of a question of this character is but little to the purpose. Grammar is a matter of convention ; and what is conventional is right, in the sense that it is not worth disputing. The man who considers such an infinitive ugly need not use it ; but if he tries to convert every one else, he must expect to find that some of them prefer to have their own way, which (as a matter of fact) is just what he wants for himself.
I suppose the phrase was invented by some penny-a-liner who preferred as their manner is to be smart rather than to take the trouble to investigate. They hate research because they have no time for it. One of the most favourite (but ill-natured) devices for raising a silly laugh is to call a word or phrase "American." I see this usual manoeuvre is quoted at p. 52 (ante), where the "split infinitive" is called a "Trans- atlantic intruder " even by so good a scholar as HERMENTEUDE. Yet, as also stated on the same page, DE. HALL "found many instances in the works of excellent authors'" I have been informed that it occurs five times in Golding's Ovid (1567). I remember finding an example in Jerrold's ' Story of a Feather' (1843), published long before we had much to do with American journals. 1 dare say many people are unaware that there was a time when no infinitive was preceded by to, but rather denoted by a suffix. In Anglo- Saxon to is not the sign of the infinitive, but of its dative case, which was only used as a gerund.
Moreover, infinitives without a to are used to this day after what are pleasantly called "auxiliary verbs," which merely means that they are so common as to be indispensable. In "I may go" the go is an infinitive ; and in "I may comfortably go" we have an intrusive adverb, of the same character as occurs in the "split infinitive."
I cannot say that my sympathies are on the side of pedantry, which usually means dogmatism founded upon one's own private opinion. They are rather on the side of scholarship, which does not shrink from
investigation, due to a desire to learn what
are the usages (rather than the opinions) of
good and well-known writers ; always re-
membering that fashions change, and that
phrases have their day. Any one who will
actually take the trouble to read our older
authors will certainly meet with many sur-
prising things. "The least fowl out," i.e., the
smallest bird known, occurs in 'Piers the
Plowman,' B. xii. 267. WALTER W. SKEAT.
EULE or THE ROAD (10 th S. ii. 467). May I (at the risk of boredom) state that many years ago a gentleman who was driving me informed me that the rule was not purely arbitrary, but arose from the need that the driver, with reins in left hand, should have his right hand free to ward off pistol or sword blow aimed at him by another man passing him on his right hand ?
EDWAED P. WOLFEBSTAN.
National Liberal Club.
Here is another version of the rule :
The rule of the road is a paradox quite,
Both in riding and driving along : If you go to the left you are sure to go right,
If you go to the right you go wrong.
But in walking the streets, 'tis a different case : To the right it is right you should bear ;
To the left should be left quite enough of free space For the persons you chance to meet there.
In the collection of oddities in verse in which I have found these lines they are ascribed to Punch. The first quatrain would seem to have been written before the birth of Mr. Punch. Possibly the second may be an addition of his. In his fifty-third volume, at p. 129, is a parody of the first, entitled ' The Rule of the River.' THOMAS LANGTON. Toronto.
' Whitaker's Almanack,' 1903, p. 695, gives the following rimes :
The rule of the road is a paradox quite ;
For in driving your carriage along, If you bear to the left you are sure to go right,
If you turn to the right you go wrong.
But in walking the streets, 'tis a different case : To the right it is right you should steer ;
On the left should be left enough of clear space For the people who wish to walk there.
Another reading is also given.
H. E. CAMEEON.
' NOTES ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS,' BY C. H. M. (10 th S. iii. 50). As was customary with writers among the Plymouth Brethren half a century ago, C. H. Mackintosh ap- pended only his initials to most of his work. He was the author of a series of expository volumes "Notes" they were all termed
