Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a
stern opponent of such neologisms." I turn to the Oxford Dictionary, and
the one quotation I find under "belong" in this sense, is:--"'You belong
with the last set, and got accidentally shuffled with the others.'--_O.W.
Holmes, 'Elsie Venner_.'" But this, Mr. Lang may say, is in
dialogue. Yes, but not in dia_lect_. I am very much mistaken if the
locution does not occur elsewhere in Holmes. If Mr. Lang, in a leisure
hour, were to undertake a search for it, he might incidentally find
cause to modify his view as to the sternness of the Autocrat's
anti-Americanism.
Let me not be thought to underrate the services which, by sound precept
and invaluable example, Mr. Lang has rendered to all of us who use the
English tongue. Conservatism and liberalism are as inevitable, nay,
indispensable, in the world of words as in the world of deeds; and I
trust Mr. Lang will not set down my liberalism as anarchism. He and I,
in this little discussion, are simply playing our allotted parts. I
believe (and Mr. Lang would probably admit with a shrug) that the forces
of the future are on my side. May I recall to him that charming anecdote
of Thackeray and Viscount Monck, when they were rival candidates for the
representation of Oxford in Parliament? They met in the street one day,
and exchanged a few words.
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