Altho the various essays which are now brought together in this book have been written from time to time during the past ten years, nearly all of them have had their origin in a desire to make plain and to emphasize one fact: that the English language belongs to the peoples who speak it, that it is their own precious possession, to deal with at their pleasure and at their peril.

The fact itself ought to be obvious enough to all of us; and yet there would be no difficulty in showing that it is not everywhere accepted.

Perhaps the best way to present it so clearly that it cannot be rejected is to draw attention to some of its implications; and this is what has been attempted in one or another of these separate papers.